Are wormholes real?

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Are Wormholes Real?

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Any fan of science fiction like Star Trek or Thor: Ragnarok is probably familiar with the concept of a wormhole, and the possibility of using them to travel great distances in the blink of an eye. This week a loyal reader asks, “Are wormholes real?” Buckle your seat belt because it’s about to get theoretical up in here.

What exactly is a wormhole?

A wormhole is an idea studied by theoretical physicists (scientists who apply mathematics and known attributes of the universe to the unknown and suggest ideas about the what might be possible, then try to prove those ideas, or theories). So while no one has ever seen evidence of a wormhole, these brilliant men and women believe that they absolutely exist in some form or another, and humanity just needs to keep looking for them.

The theory goes that a wormhole is a tunnel through space and time that connects two points in the universe that would otherwise be far apart, and could even connect points in different universes! The idea first began with Einstein back in the beginning of the 20th century, when people still rode horses as often as they drove cars and TV hadn’t been invented yet. First a scientist named Ludwig Flamm suggested there could be a tunnel connecting black holes and their opposites, white holes. Then in 1935, Albert Einstein and a fellow physicist called Nathan Rosen expanded on this theory, proposing a bridge connecting two black holes. Their theory was called the Einstein-Rosen bridge, but it was kind of a mouthful, so eventually someone called it a wormhole, and the name stuck around. (6)

You probably know that Einstein was famous for a lot of different mathematical theories and equations that explain the universe. One of them is called the theory of general relativity, and in a nutshell, it explains how gravity works. This theory, and the math that supports it, makes scientists believe in the possibility of wormholes. The theory of general relativity explains that an object with enormous mass, like a star, can actually bend the fabric of space the same way you bend a pillow if you sit down on it. That is gravity, and it can even bend light. (1,7)

But what does gravity have to do with wormholes though?

When a star goes supernova, exploding in on itself, all that mass can create a black hole with a terrific gravitational pull (2), and if there are two black holes pulling in opposite directions, they could create a tunnel, or wormhole, between themselves. The really cool thing about wormholes is that there is still so much to learn, so even though Flamm and Einstein predicted them 100 years ago, scientists today are still studying them and using newer technology and ideas to prove their existence. Last year, Dejan Stojkovic, a physicist at the University at Buffalo described it just like that, stating, “If you have two stars, one on each side of the wormhole, the star on our side should feel the gravitational influence of the star that’s on the other side. The gravitational flux will go through the wormhole,” and earlier in the year, another physicist named Daniel Jafferis who works at Harvard explained it like a tunnel between two “entangled black holes.” (5,3)

So can people travel through wormholes?

Daniel Jafferis thinks it might be possible. For years scientists have speculated that even though a wormhole could be an excellent shortcut, it would be too small (6) and too unstable, because the math shows that they would constantly collapse in on themselves. When faced with any problem, theoretical physicists like to find new solutions, so they developed the idea that we could use “exotic matter” to stabilize a wormhole and keep it form collapsing on itself—or on the traveler inside. Exotic matter just means matter with unusual properties. (9) It’s not the same as dark matter or antimatter, and in the case of wormholes, it would need to possess both negative energy and negative pressure. It has only ever been observed as the result of science experiments! (1,6)

But even then, scientists don’t all agree. Stephen Hawking believes that if one, tiny particle of matter entered a stabilized wormhole, its presence would cause the whole thing to collapse anyway. Another astrophysicist named Paul Sutter believes that, while it might not collapse, an astronaut who went far enough into a black hole to enter the wormhole would be trapped inside the wormhole forever, because they would be unable to exit back out of the black hole on the other side. But that doesn’t keep scientists from researching, forming new theories, and looking for new solutions. First we have to find one though. (2)

Where are all the wormholes?

It all comes back again to gravity. Some scientists speculate that we could spot a wormhole based on the way its gravity manipulates light. (6). And just last October, a team of scientists including Dejan Stojkovic presented a theory about how a wormhole could be spotted based on inconsistencies (or a sort of wobbling) in a star’s orbit near a supermassive black hole. Remember how the gravitational pull from one black hole would pass through the wormhole? That force would be so strong that it could cause the star on the other side to alter its regular orbit (wobbling)! (5)

Once we find and stabilize a wormhole, will human beings be able to use them? Maybe with the right technology. But scientists like Daniel Jafferis have pointed out that just because we can enter a tunnel and come out the other side doesn’t necessarily make it a short cut. The tunnel could twist and turn and wind its way through space so much that it actually ends up taking a whole lot longer than if we just plotted the “slow” and steady course through space. We’ve all taken shortcuts like that before, haven’t we? Meandering road trips where we think it will be faster to cut the diagonal on a country road, but the map didn’t show all the twists and turns and stops to get car sick along the way? (3)

So are wormholes real? Only time will tell for sure, but the sharpest minds in science seem to think so.

★ Want to learn more? Check out these awesome resources that helped me write this little #Science article, including physicist Paul Sutter's video blog series.

Jean M. Malone - August 2020