- Wormholes are a type of bridge that could form when space time is folded
- It takes an enormous amount of matter or energy to create such distortions
- But they could happen through black holes - incredibly dense areas in space
- Wormholes have never been observed, but some researchers think that given the right circumstances, a functioning wormhole 'tunnel' may be possible
Wormholes are often presented in science fiction books and films as a tunnel to different galaxies.
While wormholes have never been observed in our universe, they theoretically could exist in the field of general relativity maths pioneered by Albert Einstein.
But some researchers think that given the right circumstances, a functioning wormhole 'tunnel' may be possible.
A model of 'folded' space-time illustrates how a wormhole bridge might form with at least two mouths that are connected to a single throat or tube
A wormhole is a type of bridge that could form when space time is folded.
Space time is the 3-D 'fabric' that makes up space, and it can be warped and distorted.
It takes an enormous amount of matter or energy to create such distortions, but theoretically, distortions are possible, through black holes for example.
Dr Paul Sutter, an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University and the chief scientist at the COSI Science Center, explained in an op-ed for Live Science that if wormholes actually do exist, it would be very difficult to travel down them.
This is because their entrance sits inside the event horizon of a black hole - the point of no return leading you to a place of infinite density called the singularity, which would crush you.
But if wormholes do exist and you could somehow travel through them, you could see light from another part of the universe enter in on the opposite side.
For a working wormhole to exists, Dr Sutter said you would need to solve two problems.
Firstly, the entrance to the wormhole would have to be outside of the event horizon so you could enter the wormhole and travel through it without going to the crushing singularity.
In the 2014 movie Interstellar, the explorers use a wormhole placed near the orbit of Saturn in order to travel to another planetary system. As explained in the movie, this involves ‘bending’ space so they can travel huge distances almost instantly. One is illustrated here, but they don't really exist - as far as we know
There is something that could solve these two problems: material with negative mass.
Dr Sutter said: 'Since the exotic nature of negative mass warps spacetime in a unique way, it "inflates" the entrance to the wormhole outside the boundary of the event horizon, and stabilizes the throat of the wormhole against instabilities.
'It’s not an intuitive result but the math checks out.'
However, negative mass has never been observed by researchers.
Dr Sutter said that wormholes that actually work would breach so many laws of physics that it's better to try to solve other problems.
The idea that wormholes could exist came about through Einstein's mathematical calculations, which revealed that black holes can be extended.
The maths of black holes also predicts something called a white hole.
While black holes have a 'point of no return called the 'event horizon,' a white hole is the opposite - you can't enter it, but anything already in there can escape.
These theoretical calculations mean that all black holes would be linked to white holes, making a tunnel through space - a wormhole.
WHAT IS AN EVENT HORIZON?
The event horizon is theoretical boundary around a black hole where not light or other radiation can escape.
When any of that material gets too close to the edge of the hole, known as the event horizon, its atoms are ripped apart.
The nuclei disappear below the horizon, the much lighter electrons get caught up in the black hole's intense magnetic field and tosses them around at high speed.
This twisting motion causes them to release photons, which is the main source of emission from matter close to the black hole.
- Analyzing motion in gas cloud, the team discovered signs of a hidden black hole
- Cloud has a speed of over 100km/s, faster than sound in interstellar space
- There are two ways this cloud may have formed, both possibly from a black hole
It’s thought that there may be as many as 100 million to 1 billion black holes in the Milky Way – but, as light can’t escape from their confines, these objects are extremely difficult to spot.
Now, researchers have revealed a new method that could transform the search for black holes.
By analyzing the motion in an enigmatic gas cloud, the team discovered signs of a hidden black hole in our galaxy, and they say the method could be used to find others.
In one scenario, called the ‘irruption model,’ they describe a high speed black hole storming through a dense gas cloud. As this happens, the gas is dragged along by the gravity of the black hole, forming a stream. This is illustrated above
Using the ASTE Telescope in Chile and the 45-m Radio Telescope at Nobeyama Radio Observatory, both operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the team planned to examine the amount of energy transferred from the supernova to the surrounding molecular gas.
But in doing so, they discovered signs of a ‘stray’ black hole at the edge of the supernova remnant.
The researchers found a compact molecular cloud, dubbed ‘Bullet,’ with a bizarre pattern of motion.
The cloud has a speed of over 100km/s – faster than the speed of sound in interstellar space by more than two orders of magnitude.
On top of this, the cloud moves backward against the rotation of the Milky Way.
The researchers investigated the mysterious cloud using the two telescopes, and found that it has immense kinetic energy, causing it to appear as though it’s jumping out from the edge of W44.
‘Most of the Bullet has an expanding motion with a speed of 50 km/s, but the tip of the Bullet has a speed of 120 km/s,’ said graduate student Masaya Yamada ‘Its kinetic energy is a few tens of times larger than that injected by the W44 supernova. It seems impossible to generate such an energetic cloud under ordinary environments.’
There are two possible ways this cloud may have formed, the researchers say, both of which involve a dark and compact gravity source – possibly a black hole.
Researchers found a compact molecular cloud, ‘Bullet,’ with a bizarre pattern of motion. The cloud has a speed of over 100km/s. And, the cloud moves against the rotation of the Milky Way
In one scenario, called the ‘explosion model,’ an expanding gas shell of the supernova remnant passes near a black hole.
The black hole pulls the gas close to it, spurring an explosion that accelerates the gas toward Earth after the shell passed the black hole.
The researchers estimate the black hole to have a mass roughly 3.5 times that of the sun, or larger.
In the other scenario, called the ‘irruption model,’ they describe a high speed black hole storming through a dense gas cloud.
There are two possible ways this cloud may have formed, the researchers say, both of which involve a dark and compact gravity source – possible a black hole. The explosion model (a) and the irruption model (b) are illustrated above
As this happens, the gas is dragged along by the gravity of the black hole, forming a stream.
For this explanation, the black hole would be at least 36 times more massive than the sun.
But, they aren’t yet sure which scenario is more likely.
‘We found a new way of discovering stray black holes,’ said Tomoharu Oka, a professor at the university.
Moving forward, the team will further investigate the proposed scenarios to find more evidence for a black hole using a radio interferometer, like the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA).
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