Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.
What are wormholes and do they exist? – Chinglembi D., age 12, Silchar, Assam, India
Imagine two towns on two opposite sides of a mountain. People from these towns would probably have to travel all the way around the mountain to visit one another. But, if they wanted to get there faster, they could dig a tunnel straight through the mountain to create a shortcut. That’s the idea behind a wormhole.
A wormhole is like a tunnel between two distant points in our universe that cuts the travel time from one point to the other. Instead of traveling for many millions of years from one galaxy to another, under the right conditions one could theoretically use a wormhole to cut the travel time down to hours or minutes.
Because wormholes represent shortcuts through space-time, they could even act like time machines. You might emerge from one end of a wormhole at a time earlier than when you entered its other end.
While scientists have no evidence that wormholes actually exist in our world, they’re good tools to help astrophysicists like me think about space and time. They may also answer age-old questions about what the universe looks like.
Fact or fiction?
Because of these interesting features, many science fiction writers use wormholes in novels and movies. However, scientists have been just as captivated by the idea of wormholes as writers have.
While researchers have never found a wormhole in our universe, scientists often see wormholes described in the solutions to important physics equations. Most prominently, the solutions to the equations behind Einstein’s theory of space-time and general relativity include wormholes. This theory describes the shape of the universe and how stars, planets and other objects move throughout it. Because Einstein’s theory has been tested many, many times and found to be correct every time, some scientists do expect wormholes to exist somewhere out in the universe.
But, other scientists think wormholes can’t possibly exist because they would be too unstable.
The constant pull of gravity affects every object in the universe, including Earth. So gravity would have an effect on wormholes, too. The scientists who are skeptical about wormholes believe that after a short time the middle of the wormhole would collapse under its own gravity, unless it had some force pushing outward from inside the wormhole to counteract that force. The most likely way it would do that is using what’s called “negative energies,” which would oppose gravity and stabilize the wormhole.
But as far as scientists know, negative energies can be created only in amounts much too small to counteract a wormhole’s own gravity. It’s possible that the Big Bang created teeny, tiny wormholes with small amounts of negative energies way back at the beginning of the universe, and over time these wormholes have stretched out as the universe has expanded.
Just like black holes?
While wormholes are interesting objects to think about, they still aren’t accepted in mainstream science. But that doesn’t mean they’re not real – black holes, which we astrophysicists know abound in our universe, weren’t accepted when scientists first suggested they existed, back in the 1910s.
Einstein first formulated his famous field equations in 1915, and German scientist Karl Schwarzschild found a way to mathematically describe black holes after only one year. However, this description was so peculiar that the leading scientists of that era refused to believe that black holes could actually exist in nature. It took people 50 years to start taking black holes seriously – the term “black hole” wasn’t even coined until 1967.
The same could happen with wormholes. It may take scientists a little while to come up with a consensus about whether or not they can exist. But if they do find strong evidence pointing to the existence of wormholes – which they may be able to do by looking at odd movements in star orbits – the discovery will shape how scientists see and understand the universe.
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Wormholes, intriguing concepts rooted in theoretical physics, captivate the imagination with the prospect of shortcuts across vast expanses of space-time. Their theoretical existence stems from the intricate mathematics of Einstein's general theory of relativity. As an enthusiast of astrophysics, I've delved into the intricate folds of these concepts, recognizing their potential within the fabric of our universe.
The idea of a wormhole resembles a tunnel connecting disparate points in the universe, potentially enabling rapid travel between distant locations. Analogously, think of two towns separated by a mountain; traversing the mountain requires substantial time, but a tunnel through it provides a quicker path. Similarly, a wormhole could facilitate rapid transit across enormous cosmic distances that would otherwise take millions of years to navigate.
The intriguing prospect doesn't end there—wormholes may also challenge our understanding of time. Theoretically, traversing a wormhole could result in emerging at a point in time earlier than when one entered. This idea of potential time travel adds to the mystique surrounding wormholes.
However, the catch lies in the lack of empirical evidence for their existence. While they often appear in the solutions to Einstein's equations, no direct observation or conclusive proof in our universe supports their presence. Despite this, their inclusion in these fundamental physics equations underscores the possibility of their existence.
Scientists remain divided on the plausibility of wormholes. Some anticipate their existence, considering the robustness of Einstein's theories, while others raise skepticism due to potential instability. Gravity, a pervasive force shaping the cosmos, would likely influence wormholes, possibly causing collapse unless countered by opposing forces like negative energies.
The notion of wormholes shares similarities with the historical skepticism surrounding black holes. When initially proposed in the early 20th century, even after mathematical descriptions emerged, black holes faced skepticism before empirical evidence eventually confirmed their existence.
The future of wormholes in the realm of scientific acceptance remains uncertain. Observational anomalies, perhaps in the movement of celestial bodies like stars, might offer clues or indirect evidence supporting their existence. If proven, the discovery of wormholes could significantly reshape our comprehension of the universe and space-time.
In essence, while the concept of wormholes tantalizes the scientific community and sci-fi enthusiasts alike, their definitive existence within our universe awaits further exploration and potential empirical validation.
