A black hole
is a celestial whirlpool
of gravitational death.
Things can go in,
but they can't get out.
But it turns out
that one of the most powerful things in the Universe
could have a mysterious twin.
A white hole.
Yeah.
This beast isn't exactly like a black hole.
Black holes are incredibly dense objects
that squeeze all the matter they ingest
into an infinitely small point at their center,
a singularity.
Most black holes are remnants of massive,
collapsed stars,
so they have a lot of mass
condensed into that point.
And a lot of mass means a lot of gravity.
Every black hole has an event horizon.
This is the boundary surrounding them
that marks the point of no return.
To escape from the event horizon,
you'd need to be able to travel faster
than the speed of light.
White holes are the opposite.
In the same way
that nothing can leave a black hole,
nothing can enter a white one.
That's why scientists theorize
that white holes
might be the other side of a black hole.
Rather than consuming matter,
a white hole constantly ejects it into the Universe.
If not back into our Universe,
it could be a gateway to another.
Now, while we’ve observed
and even captured an image of a black hole,
we've never seen a trace of one of its white twins.
But scientists may have finally found the evidence
they've been looking for.
Mysterious gamma rays
showing up where they shouldn't be.
Gamma-ray bursts
are short-lived bursts of gamma-ray light
that last from a fraction of a second
to a few minutes.
And in this short time,
they eject as much energy as our Sun does
over its entire lifetime.
Gamma-ray bursts
are the most energetic events in the Universe.
They could be hundreds of times brighter
than a supernova.
And they happen when a black hole is born.
But scientists found one
very unusual gamma-ray burst.
It seemed to appear out of nowhere,
only to collapse on itself very quickly.
And even though it lasted about 100 seconds,
it behaved like a much shorter burst.
This particular gamma-ray burst,
called GRB 060614,
didn't have the usual afterglow
that comes from a black hole.
And that’s why scientists think
this might be the proof we needed
of a white hole.
So it's time to check it out firsthand.
Hey, before you jump into
one of the most puzzling objects in the Universe,
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This trip to the white hole is going to be costly.
If you traveled across the Universe
to catch a glimpse of this
theoretical white hole,
what you'd find would look like a black hole.
A dark emptiness,
a ring of dust and gas
separated by an event horizon.
But you wouldn't slide into the center of the singularity.
No, instead, things would get rough.
Your spaceship would be blasted by intense gamma rays,
destroying it and everything inside.
Even if you could survive that
with the help of super-advanced gamma-protective technology
that doesn't exist yet,
you'd still never be able to enter
the event horizon of this white hole.
It would be like immense
air resistance back here on Earth.
The ejected radiation would
constantly slow you down.
Add to that the challenge of moving through space-time
that's being warped around you.
It would almost be like you were traveling uphill,
with an extreme wind blowing you away.
You'd need more energy to overcome this resistance
and push forward.
And the closer to the white hole you get,
the more energy you'd require.
There would come a point where you'd need more energy
than there is in the entire Universe.
But there might be another way in.
If a white hole truly is
the backside of a black hole,
then traveling into its singularity
would be like going through a black hole in reverse.
But now,
not only would you be competing
against the powerful forces of gamma radiation,
but you'd also need to overcome
the impossibly powerful forces
of gravity working against you.
Oh, and you'd need to travel faster than the speed of light.
Of course, that's impossible.
Nothing can travel faster than light.
But you might be able to get to your destination
by jumping into a black hole first.
Scientists think there might be a wormhole
connecting the white hole to its black hole companion.
This could be your only way in.
Except, this passage would be extremely unstable.
The entire thing could collapse unpredictably
at any moment.
I doubt you'd want to be inside when that goes down.
Don't say I didn't warn you!
If you were brave enough
to jump into a black hole,
well, you'd have to pass its event horizon.
Once you were inside,
you'd see another energetic burst of bright light.
After this,
the black hole would seem to expand all around you,
surrounded by a ring of light.
You'd be feeling quite disoriented by now,
and it might almost appear
as if you were free-falling back through the black hole.
This wouldn't be the case.
This is just an optical illusion
known as relativistic beaming.
And of course,
this wouldn't be the only extreme effect you'd experience.
You'd still need to do the impossible
and somehow break the cosmic speed record.
Traveling faster than the speed of light,
you'd be overcoming the most extreme forces of gravity
pulling at you from behind.
And because of that,
your entire body would be stretched out very thin.
This would be reverse spaghettification.
And finally, the disorienting effects of the relativistic beaming
would make it appear to shrink ahead of you
like you're getting further and further away.
But eventually,
you'd overcome all that gravity
and blast your way out of the event horizon.
And now you'd be spewed out the other side of the black hole,
into a completely different part of our Universe.
Or maybe not even in our Universe at all.
Yeah, come on
you just traveled through a black hole
and then through a white hole.
Anything is possible.
13.8 billion years ago,
all the matter and radiation that makes up our Universe
emerged out of a singularity.
Maybe you just traveled through the black hole
that created our Universe.
It sounds like you've got another epic journey of discovery
ahead of you.
But it might not be as easy as you think.
It's possible you've entered a Universe
with entirely different laws of physics than the ones we know of.
You might be better off
checking out something else
that scientists have discovered.
Like this terrifying planet that looks like Earth.
But that's a story for another WHAT IF.