Feature This week's community question is about wormholes!

[MMohammed]

​

Hiya, folks Here we are with yet another Community Question! This time around...I'm thinking we go ahead and test our imagination even further.

Nearly all space enthusiasts have, at some point, been fascinated by the noble wormhole. Honestly, who wouldn't be? It's a mysterious, spectacular phenomena that has frequently tested the limits of astrophysics. So, I want to know, if it was possible to pass through a wormhole safely and you were given the opportunity to do so...what would you expect to see on the other side?

I'm embarrassed to say that there's a part of my brain that insists I'd find myself in the same universe, but hundreds of years in the past. It seems the cartoons I saw as a child (and one Physics teacher who tolerated my incessant questions) have allowed that idea to stick to my brain!

How about you? What would you expect to see on the other side of a wormhole?

And remember, we'll be featuring some of our favourite answers on the weekly community round-up!

 

[sam85geo]

To me a wormhole(s) seems to be a "path through the woods as compared to the path around the woods". Thus traveling through a wormhole means the traveler stays in the present, ages normally and arrives at a destination in the present sooner. However, if travel through a wormhole is greater than 50% the speed of light, biology slows, time dilates , space-time warps. This raises the scary prospect of going back in time and meeting one's ex-wife and mother-in-law or going forward in time and having the ex-wife and mother-in-law waiting with a court order. Given such uncertainty, it does seem sensible to avoid wormholes until more is definitely known.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Depends on the wormhole.

If we're talking a wormhole as in STS9, then I'd expect to see more space.
If we're talking a wormhole as in Stargate, then I'd like to look up and see a mother planet and two or three suns, having landed on some moon.

-Wolf sends

 

[Catastrophe]

Is there not n idea that wormholes might only work, if at all, for the smallest entities?

Cat

 

[rabsal]

Wormholes exist because our Universe is entangled.
Everything that spins has mass and consciousness and can be entangled but the entanglement communicates with information or energy and not something with mass. So a wormhole is a way to travel within the Universe as "something with mass", or an entity.
The spin of a wormhole defines past or future travel, clockwise is for the future and the opposite is for past travel.
To create a wormhole you need to ...."that's classified information"...

 

[Dragrath]

Hmm wormholes are a tricky thing as they are generally tiny based off our theoretical frameworks they need some for of anti mass energy to hold the connection open else they would as far as we know collapse into a pair of black holes. The normal solution thought to potentially play a role in entanglement is stabilized based on the quantum vacuum. In some specialized frameworks that extend beyond known physics there can be made stable macroscopic wormholes but interestingly or unfortunately depending on your perspective these wormholes actually appear to involve time dilation which results in the trip which is near instantaneous for the wormhole traveler from the frame of the location of arrival(assuming in the same universe) emerging some time after the causal light cone from the point in space where they left to where they arrived.

That is to say if you took a wormhole to Andromeda while that trip felt instantaneous to you you would arrive several million years later if true this kind of kills FTL dreams

 

[Wolfshadw]

Folks,

What part of "imagination" and "if it was possible" got lost?

-Wolf sends

 

[Lov_space&rockets]

Hey, fellas!! K here goes my first anwer..

Well in my opinion a wormhole is a speculative structure linking disparate points in spacetime and is based on a special solution of the Einstein field equations.
A wormhole can be visualized as a tunnel with two ends at separate points in spacetime (i.e., different locations, or different points in time, or both).
Now arises another question: Are black holes and wormholes just the same thing?
I mean its natural to get curious, so here's an answer to this question from my perspective...
From the outside, wormholes can appear similar to black holes. But while an object that falls into a black hole is trapped there, something that falls into a wormhole could traverse through it to the other side.
Another difference, no evidence has been found that wormholes exist whereas black holes have clear proof evidence of their existence. Wormholes are believed to be mostly fictional, but who knows someone might just figure it out...
Thanks for taking your precious time to read my article.

Here is a video and an interesting experiment for you folks to enjoy:
Scientists Claim to Have Created a Magnetic Worm ...www.labroots.com › trending › chemistry-and-physics › s...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kxKTX_GH4k&authuser=0

 

[Dragrath]

Folks,

What part of "imagination" and "if it was possible" got lost?

-Wolf sends

Well the question isn't really able to have a concise accurate answer without applying some grounding in the laws of physics. The main point I wanted to express is that there is research showing that wormholes don't give a free ride through space and not time it looks like they lead into the future and do so slower than the speed of causality so it seems fairly comparable to hyper ultra relativistic space travel where the length has been contracted towards near zero time has similarly been dilated to such an extent that the universe around you rushes by conserving causality.

 

[4Li]

The Universe is a very mysterious place and although we might think we have learned a lot about it, we have not even found the key to open the lock to Pandora's box. Wormholes, in my opinion would be "space bridges" that was engineered by space explorers to cut down on travel time between solar systems, galaxies or even other realities or dimensions. But I think before I would jump in a wormhole, I would like to know the destination in order to prepare for my arrival and if the environment would be pleasant for me. A Canadian would not in the middle of their winter (-30'C), jump on a plane to Africa, who is in the middle of summer ( +40'C) without preparation. Imagine the difference between our reality and another. I would like to be an observer of a probe or rover going through the wormhole and enjoy the scenery.

 

[Sr. Pauline]

​

Hiya, folks Here we are with yet another Community Question! This time around...I'm thinking we go ahead and test our imagination even further.

Nearly all space enthusiasts have, at some point, been fascinated by the noble wormhole. Honestly, who wouldn't be? It's a mysterious, spectacular phenomena that has frequently tested the limits of astrophysics. So, I want to know, if it was possible to pass through a wormhole safely and you were given the opportunity to do so...what would you expect to see on the other side?

I'm embarrassed to say that there's a part of my brain that insists I'd find myself in the same universe, but hundreds of years in the past. It seems the cartoons I saw as a child (and one Physics teacher who tolerated my incessant questions) have allowed that idea to stick to my brain!

How about you? What would you expect to see on the other side of a wormhole?

And remember, we'll be featuring some of our favourite answers on the weekly community round-up!

I would expect to see a whole other universe, where time and space are not separated. The mere thought of a place would bring me there. I could visit the whole new universe in thought, which I actiually already do now, but with the limit of time and space.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Well the question isn't really able to have a concise accurate answer without applying some grounding in the laws of physics. The main point I wanted to express is that there is research showing that wormholes don't give a free ride through space and not time it looks like they lead into the future and do so slower than the speed of causality so it seems fairly comparable to hyper ultra relativistic space travel where the length has been contracted towards near zero time has similarly been dilated to such an extent that the universe around you rushes by conserving causality.

Ok. Have at it then.

-Wolf sends

 

[daleraby]

I addressed this question in the Afterword section of my very short book (actually more of a Christmas card) The Gangster's Christmas. It isn't very technical as my intended audience was not especially conversant with the subject matter. In any case, here it is:

"...I used a common science-fiction device called a wormhole to get my characters to Magdala. A wormhole might provide a bridge to other times and places. Do things like this happen? I dunno. So far, its just a theory with only a few anecdotal accounts in evidence to support it.
As to whether or not John Dillinger and “Billie” Frechette did in fact travel through space-time to rescue Mary Magdalene as a new-born on the night Jesus was born, well, this is a work of fiction, but it certainly could have happened that way. Who among you can say for certain that it did not?
Merry Christmas!"

As to what I would expect to see? Well, whatever was on the other end of the wormhole! Might be open space, might be an abandoned new-born girl squirming in the middle of a primitive road illuminated in the headlights of a Ford Model 18.

 

[Joel]

I think after an intensive study of the other side of a wormhole we would find every sock that disappeared in dryers all over earth. Of course, matching socks are not important for my daughter since she enjoys and intentionally chooses to wear non-matching socks with non-matching shoes. With that in mind I have started a monthly withdrawal from my checking account to fund her passage through the wormhole so she can acquire as many non-matching socks as possible.

 

[rod]

Well, I have this old book Black Holes & Time Warps Einstein Outrageous Legacy by Kip S. Thorne 1994. Wormholes in that book also use quantum gravity and in 1994, not confirmed in nature or observed (yet).

I also have this report, 'Six stages in the history of the astronomical unit'', https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001JAHH....4...15H/abstract, June 2001. The PDF report has a very good table showing efforts to measure the astronomical unit starting with Aristarchus near 280 BC. Table 1 on page 16 of the report (attached, page 2 of the PDF).

Wormholes do not have this observation and measurement history as the astronomical unit does. So far, wormholes appear to me to be *very theoretical*.

 

[sam85geo]

I was reading though these posts to find some amusing conceptions of a really, really neat parallel Universe complete with unspoiled beauty, a government that provides freebies with low taxes, a eight hour work week, and a plethora of similar fantasies apropos of puberty. However, what I found was well informed, dedicated physics "nerds" who most likely would be first in-line volunteers when a wormhole trip "opens up". Great informative posts folks.

 

[SpARtan_Thunder]

Wormholes are like the coolest thing ever. Thinking that you could practically warp to somwhere else almost instantly is amazing. The problem is if they really exist. We have no proof that can tell us for sure if they are real. If they were that would be so awesome, but hey, I'm no scientist (yet).

if they do exist, where are they? How would we see them? Are they located in an object? Do they branch between a black hole and a white hole? We may never know, but i sure hope we learn something new.

also, love the question of the week. Just really want one about black holes if there hasn’t been one.

 

[lrobertsonbooks]

A year ago October when Alphabet announced their Sycamore quantum computer, scientists at JPL said that quantum computers will be the key to unlocking either Miguel Alcubierre's Warp Drive or wormholes by the end of this century. Or, both? Stay tuned.

 

[tiape]

Wormholes remind me of the folds of the brain where both allow information to reach vast areas more quickly where time and space are not restraints. Our inner reflects the outer.

 

[G Ollie]

On the other side of a wormhole I would expect to see an early bird waiting

 

[Jingherng]

In my opinion, a wormhole is a escalator that moves very fast to the other side of the universe.
I think on the other side of a wormhole is almost the same, but maybe there are lifes and some strange and unexpected objects.

 

[SpaceEnthusiast]

To me a wormhole(s) seems to be a "path through the woods as compared to the path around the woods". Thus traveling through a wormhole means the traveler stays in the present, ages normally and arrives at a destination in the present sooner. However, if travel through a wormhole is greater than 50% the speed of light, biology slows, time dilates , space-time warps. This raises the scary prospect of going back in time and meeting one's ex-wife and mother-in-law or going forward in time and having the ex-wife and mother-in-law waiting with a court order. Given such uncertainty, it does seem sensible to avoid wormholes until more is definitely known.

Do not lose grip on reality. Though the light of an object takes a long time to reach its destination, the object that produced that light is long gone, therefore there is no past to go back to. So, you can arrive at where the light originated but what produced that light is no longer existent or there.

 

[wingedhippo]

According to my opinion, a wormhole is a sick idea. The only wormhole I can imagine is a worm made corridor in the apple :|

 

[Catastrophe]

I don't think the wormhole / brain folds idea works.

As far as I know, brain folding just packs a larger area into a given volume. I have never heard of any communication across folds - but I stand to be corrected if anyone knows better.

Cat

 

[sam85geo]

Do not lose grip on reality. Though the light of an object takes a long time to reach its destination, the object that produced that light is long gone, therefore there is no past to go back to. So, you can arrive at where the light originated but what produced that light is no longer existent or there.

Well Maybe? As I understand "Uncle Albert" going at or faster than the speed of light is akin to traveling at a continuous present or if faster, going backward in time. My opinion: For human existence, the past is done and gone forever, and the future is undetermined and probabilistic. Nature, physics, biology, and Evolution have made it so; damn them. Additionally, wormholes do not exist as speculated, but on the other hand "who really knows".