Title: Wormholes may be lurking in the universe!
I want you to think about the most exotic object you know in the universe.
Perhaps you are thinking about a black hole or a pulsar, o maybe a peculiar binary system
made of a black hole and a pulsar, which had been created by means of unexplainable
physical mechanisms and laws. Well, all of these objects exist
in our universe, and we have proof of that. For example,
we know that a black hole exists right at the centre, in the nucleus of our Milky Way.
Here's a picture of the event horizon of the black hole M87+, in the M87 galaxy.
The existence of such objects was predicted before we had observed one.
We hadn't ever seen a black hole before the Event Horizon Telescope showed us M87+'s event horizon,
and yet we somehow knew that we would have been able to see it one day because that's
what math tells us: that black holes exist. In fact, the existence of black holes is a
consequence of the General Relativity theory. But it is not the only one. For example,
we know that an object might exist, that breaks the rules of time and connects
two parts of the universe, or two different universes. They have been called wormholes.
Follow me in this video to get to know more about them!
Wormholes were first theorized in 1916, though that wasn't what they were called at the time.
What happened is that an Austrian physicist, called Ludwig Flamm, found a solution to
Einstein's equations of General Relativity theory. He called the resultant mathematical
object a “white hole”, in contrast with the already known solution of a “black hole”.
What we knew was that a particle could in principle enter the black hole,
and once inside, there was no way out: the laws of physics started to be weird inside the black hole,
and all that the particle could experience was the infinite falling towards the centre, also
called a singularity, of this monstrous object. But what Flamm actually found was that entrances
to both black and white holes could be connected by a sort of space-time conduit. So scientists
started work hard on this, and in 1935 Einstein and Rosen tried to use the General Relativity to
show that the existence of such “bridges” through space-time could be possible. According to them,
such bridges connecting a white hole and a black hole could connect two different points in the
space-time grid. This meant only one thing: they could reduce travel time and distance.
These shortcuts, these bridges, ended up being called Wormholes, or Einstein-Rosen bridges.
However, as almost always happens, we have to distinguish between mathematical results and
physical results. The first ones are always possible and give raise to mathematical
objects. But it's not always true that mathematical objects are also physical ones.
That's exactly the bound between physics and math.
One tells us that there could be something. The other's job is to confirm if the solutions are
real, in the sense that they actually exist in the universe. Most of the time, given the
actual technology, if we can't observe them, we say that probably they don't exist. “Probably”
means that we always have to keep in mind that our technology is limited and so are our observations.
Anyway, that's the whole thing: scientists say wormholes are hypothetical at this point,
and no one thinks we're going to find a wormhole anytime soon.
===================================================== However, let's understand a bit better
how a wormhole should be made. In principle, we can imagine a
wormhole as a strange creature, owning two mouths, with a throat connecting the two.
The mouths would most likely be spheroidal, while the throat might be straight,
or it could wind around, taking a longer path than a more conventional route might require.
As we've already said, Einstein's theory of general relativity mathematically
predicts the existence of wormholes, but none have been discovered to date.
One of the two mouths could certainly be a black hole, but
something more is probably required, even if we don't really know what is required.
Could a naturally boring occurring black hole, formed by the collapse of a dying star,d
always create by itself a wormhole? Maybe something else is needed!
If you are fond of science fiction movies, you've already probably heard about wormholes.
They are used to travelling in space-time, and they seem to be pretty easy to use.
But the reality of such trips is more complicated. First of all, if we ever happen to find a
wormhole - which we didn't yet – we would find that its size is something like 10 to
33 centimetres. This is a huge problem. However, since the universe is expanding,
it is possible that some of them have been stretched to larger sizes.
The second big problem is stability. In fact, Einstein and Rosen's predictions say
that wormholes would be quite useless for travel, and the reason for that is they collapse quickly.
This is therefore what we mean when we say that a wormhole is unstable.
However, the existence of an exotic matter, different from dark matter and antimatter,
could solve this problem. In fact, physicists say that a wormhole containing exotic matter
could stay open and unchanging for longer periods of time. Such a wormhole would be more stable
and would allow us to pass through its throat. We have no idea whether this exotic matter exists
or not, but if it did, it would have a negative energy density and a large negative pressure.
No known object fulfils such requirements. Such matter has only been seen in the
behaviour of certain vacuum states as part of quantum field theory.
Although adding exotic matter to a wormhole might stabilize it to the point that human passengers
could travel safely through it, there is still the possibility that the
addition of "regular" matter would be sufficient to destabilize the portal.
As of today, we don't have the technology needed to enlarge or stabilize a wormhole.
However, scientists continue to explore the concept as a method of space travel
with the hope that technology will eventually be able to utilize them.
Also, if a wormhole contained sufficient exotic matter, whether naturally occurring or
artificially added, it could theoretically be used as a method of sending information or travellers
through space. The good news about wormholes is that, after about ten years of hard work,
we cannot prove that they do not exist. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be over,
because human journeys through the space tunnels may be challenging.
If you are here watching this video, it means you are passionately curious about human spaceflight
and the mysteries of the universe. We constantly strive to make videos that
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Scientist Kip Thorne, one of the major experts in General Relativity, said that there are very
strong indications that wormholes that a human could travel through are forbidden by the laws
of physics. That's sad, that's unfortunate, but that's the direction in which things are pointing.
Anyway, forgetting about the sad things, maybe it would be better if we just focused on a
description of a wormhole, and nothing more. For example, scientists found that wormholes
may not only connect two separate regions within the universe, but they could also
connect two different universes. So, resuming, what we know is that:
1. Wormholes could exist, but we never observed one
2. They are very small in size, of the order of 10 up to 33 cm
3. They are really unstable 4. They could allow shortening
spacetime distances within the same universe 5. They could connect two different universes.
6. We won't stop looking for them, because -even if we've never seen one,
there is no proof against their existence. One of the most fascinating implications of
wormholes is that they could allow you to actually travel in time.
Here's how it works. First, create a wormhole.
Then take one end of the wormhole, put it on a spacecraft and fly away at a significant
percentage of the speed of light. In this way, the time dilation effect would take place.
For the people on the spacecraft, just a few years will have occurred,
while it could have been hundreds or even thousands for the ones back on Earth.
If you passed in one direction, you'd not only move the distance between the wormholes
but you'd also be transported to the time that the wormhole is experiencing. Go one
direction and you move forward in time, go the other way: backwards in time.
However, physicists think this wouldn't work because this would violate two of physics' most
fundamental principles: local energy conservation and the energy-time uncertainty principle.
It might also be interesting to point out that recent experiments on “quantum
teleportation” – a “disembodied” transfer of quantum information from one location to
another – have turned out to work in a similar way to two black holes connected through a wormhole.
These experiments appear to solve the “quantum information paradox”, which suggests physical
information could permanently disappear in a black hole. But they also reveal a deep connection
between the notoriously incompatible theories of quantum physics and gravity – with wormholes
being relevant to both – which may be instrumental in the construction of a “theory of everything”.
The fact that wormholes play a role in these fascinating developments
is unlikely to go unnoticed. We may not have seen them, but they could
certainly be out there. They may even help us understand some of the deepest cosmic mysteries,
such as whether our universe is the only one.
"This video ends here! Thanks for watching everyone!
Do you think wormholes exist? How would you use them? Let us know in the comments below,
be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on the channel!"