ladbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Scientists Suggest That Supermassive Black Holes Could Be Traversable Wormholes

Scientists Suggest That Supermassive Black Holes Could Be Traversable Wormholes

Anything has to be better than here

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Astrophysicists have suggested that black holes could actually be traversable wormholes that would allow anyone travelling through them to travel through space and - potentially - time.

That would mean that, theoretically at least, you could take a spaceship into a black hole and emerge on the other side in who-knows-where.

Wormholes were predicted in Einstein's theory of relativity, but they've never actually been properly proven.

However, a team of astrophysicists from the Central Astronomical Observatory in St Petersburg led by Mikhail Piotrovich has devised a new way of scouring these hypothetical gateways by looking into whether supermassive black holes are, in actual fact, wormholes.

PA

In the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society they intend to set out a theory about how wormholes at the middle of brighter galaxies might 'radiate with a distinctive spectrum' that could be detected.

If they discovered this, it could lead to a whole new way of travelling - and even time travelling - if anyone can be found that is willing to take that first experimental journey, anyway.

In an email to Vice, Piotrovich said: "A very interesting and unusual consequence of the existence of wormholes of this type is the fact that such wormholes are natural time machines.

"The wormholes we are considering are traversable wormholes, so theoretically spacecraft can travel through them.

"But of course, it should be understood that we know very little about the internal structure of wormholes and moreover, we do not even know for sure whether they exist at all."

PA

You see, certain galaxies have huge luminous cores called active galactic nuclei (AGN) that blast out huge amounts of energised matter travelling at nearly the speed of light.

The scientists reckon they're caused by the interaction between huge black holes and 'accretion disks' that form out of gas, dust, and stars that are sucked in.

However, what if they're not black holes and are actually 'wormhole mouths' that are linked across universal space and time?

That would be something, wouldn't it?

Before we get too excited or terrified about this revelation, it's worth remembering that the nearest AGN is a seriously long way away. That means that it's unlikely we'd be able to just hop on over to one and check it out.

PA

Even then, the amounts of energy kicking about there could make it impossible for any human or craft to endure.

Still, even discovering the existence of wormholes would be a massive milestone for science, so it's worth having a look into.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Science, World News, Interesting, Technology, space