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Do Wormholes Already Exist?
Unveiled
Follow
2/9/2025
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Fun
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00:00
It's safe to say that Einstein's theories of relativity turned the physics scene on
00:04
its head when they were devised in the early 20th century.
00:07
A brazenly new approach, they described the behavior of that ever-enigmatic fundamental
00:11
force, gravity, on the grandest scales and to an amazing degree of accuracy.
00:18
Two especially interesting predictions derived from the theories were the existence of black
00:22
holes and the existence of wormholes.
00:25
Fast forward to the 21st century, and today we've proven that a huge number of black
00:30
holes are thriving in the cosmos.
00:32
With wormholes, though, the mystery remains.
00:35
This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question…
00:40
Do Wormholes Already Exist?
00:43
Do you need the big questions answered?
00:45
Are you constantly curious?
00:47
Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:50
And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:53
Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity in 1915.
00:58
It can be seen as an enormous extension of Isaac Newton's classical theory of gravity,
01:03
which itself was put forward in the 17th century.
01:06
While Newton's theories were also monumental in their own right, they didn't provide a
01:10
comprehensive overview of gravity's mechanics.
01:13
Classical gravity fails to make predictions in the way that general relativity can, such
01:18
as with regards to gravity's effect on time, leading to Einstein's ideas on spacetime,
01:25
time dilation, etc.
01:27
Newton's contributions were hugely significant in terms of explaining how gravity works on
01:32
a human scale, to describe the world around us, such as, and famously, when an apple falls
01:37
from a tree.
01:38
And in truth, Newton's models could also be applied to some cosmic phenomena, at least
01:43
within our own solar system.
01:45
But ultimately, for the really big stuff, you generally need Einstein and relativity
01:51
to make it all work out.
01:53
Relativity says that there's an underlying fabric to spacetime, which permeates through
01:57
the cosmos.
01:58
When that fabric warps, that's gravity at play, in a matter of speaking.
02:03
Where Newton said mass was the source of gravity, Einstein knew that the real secrets were hidden
02:08
in how and where spacetime fell into shape.
02:11
There are certain regions of space where extreme gravitational forces are in play,
02:15
such as close to a black hole or a neutron star.
02:19
And so it's here where we should, and do, see the most extreme gravitational effects.
02:24
But the fundamental rules are always the same, wherever you are in the universe.
02:29
Spacetime warps, gravity happens.
02:31
Einstein predicted black holes as part of his theories, although it would take multiple
02:36
decades before science could prove them beyond doubt.
02:39
And famously, it wasn't until 2019 that the first image of a black hole was captured.
02:44
We of course know that a black hole works something like a bottomless gravitational
02:48
pit.
02:49
All that goes in never comes back out again.
02:52
Once matter, and even light, passes the event horizon, it will never return back to outside
02:57
the black hole that has consumed it.
02:59
But still, scientists are usually at a bit of a loss to explain exactly what happens
03:03
in the depths of a black hole.
03:05
Spaghettification, yes.
03:07
A flattening of everything into a 2D plane, true.
03:10
But the infinite nature of a black hole's singularity still inevitably leaves the mystery
03:15
open.
03:16
This is by no means a new problem.
03:19
It was something that Einstein himself realized even all those years ago.
03:23
In 1935, he and another prominent physicist of the time, Nathan Rosen, applied what's
03:29
known as the Schwarzschild metric to develop the concept of the Einstein-Rosen bridge.
03:34
In simple terms, the Schwarzschild metric is used to measure how particles move when
03:39
they get close to a black hole.
03:41
Meanwhile, an Einstein-Rosen bridge is what could theoretically happen to and around those
03:46
particles if, as they should, the inner workings of a black hole go on forever.
03:51
Ultimately, a path, or bridge, should be forged, according to Einstein and Rosen, that connects
03:57
two regions of spacetime together.
03:59
At one end, a black hole.
04:01
At the other, what some term to be a white hole, out of which matter is eternally expelled
04:07
rather than consumed.
04:09
Not all wormholes are Einstein-Rosen bridges, but many scientists would concede that if
04:14
wormholes do exist, then it's a good bet that they'd work like an Einstein-Rosen bridge
04:19
is predicted to do.
04:21
But again, while we certainly have proof of black holes lurking all over the universe,
04:25
we have yet to find evidence of even one wormhole.
04:28
The problem is that Einstein-Rosen bridges, if they do exist, collapse far too quickly
04:34
for anything to pass through.
04:36
Physicists often complain that exotic matter, the likes of which hasn't been observed,
04:41
invented, or discovered yet, would be needed to keep such a bridge stable for even close
04:45
to long enough to measure it, let alone to travel through.
04:49
Over the years, there have been some attempted extensions to the general wormhole idea, such
04:54
as with the Morris-Thorne wormhole, which was developed in 1988 by Kip Thorne and Michael
05:00
Morris.
05:01
Again, though, no matter the tweaks they made, their model needed exotic matter to function.
05:06
Elsewhere, and other flavours of wormholes exist as well, each with different properties.
05:12
Those said to be non-traversable include Schwarzschild wormholes and Kruskal-Sekaris wormholes.
05:18
Potentially traversable varieties include Lorentzian wormholes and Euclidean wormholes,
05:23
which if they exist, do so along what is essentially a whole different plane of reality
05:29
to our own.
05:30
In short, the science of wormholes is, at present, enough to make the heady science
05:34
of black holes feel like child's play.
05:37
And the reality is that, while theories abound, nobody knows for sure that these things are
05:42
or could be real.
05:44
So, where do we go from here?
05:46
For those working in the field of observational astronomy, they clearly have their work cut
05:50
out to find anything of note.
05:52
On paper, wormholes possibly should be opening up all over the place, all of the time.
05:57
But, in reality, even if they were, then it could well be physically impossible for this
06:02
universe to keep them open for very long at all.
06:05
According to some interpretations, a wormhole would likely spark in and out of life within
06:09
just a tiny, tiny fraction of a second.
06:12
And yet, despite this, there are still some strategies being explored in a bid to find
06:17
one.
06:18
Trusty gravitational lensing is one potentially promising method.
06:21
We know that massive enough objects can bend the light that surrounds them from background
06:26
sources, so astronomers are always on the lookout for distortions in the cosmos, from
06:31
our point of view… as a distortion usually means that something massive is in view and
06:35
is having an effect.
06:37
The lensing created by a wormhole would likely be very different to that prompted by, say,
06:42
a passing star or planet, however.
06:44
And of course, scientists are always at the ready to clock anything that's especially
06:48
unusual or distinct.
06:50
Failing that, then it's thought that our own growing study of gravitational waves could
06:54
yield results.
06:56
These are essentially vast ripples that move across and through spacetime.
07:00
They're generally caused by massive, accelerating objects and or significant cosmological events.
07:06
Again, waves made by the presence of a wormhole would likely be in some way unique, or might
07:11
even show as an anomaly.
07:14
Overall, are wormholes possible?
07:17
Certainly they are, according to many of the most fundamental laws of physics as we understand
07:21
them today.
07:22
Their story is tied up in an area of space and reality that we may never fully understand,
07:27
however… the inside of a black hole.
07:30
For now, we hold black holes as perhaps the single most enigmatic entities in all of space
07:35
and time.
07:37
While almost everything else is at least describable to us at our current level of knowledge, the
07:42
inner workings of a black hole, for the most part, just aren't.
07:46
And yet, it's here where, if they do exist, a wormhole is most likely to take shape.
07:52
Do wormholes already exist?
07:54
If they are possible, then almost certainly, yes.
07:57
And there are likely a large number of them, linking the universe together into something
08:01
more like a cosmological web.
08:03
Are we likely to discover one soon?
08:06
Unfortunately, the answer is no.
08:08
If they are real, then the current consensus is that they're probably only real for a
08:12
very short period of time, before collapsing into infinite nothingness due to an ongoing
08:18
lack of exotic matter.
08:20
Which is really kind of beautiful in its own way, just not if you really need to get to
08:24
another planet or galaxy in double-quick time.
08:28
What do you think?
08:29
Is there anything we missed?
08:30
Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
08:34
subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.
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