Could black holes be portals to other universes?

From: http://space.newscientist.com/articl...universes.html

http://img490.imageshack.us/img490/5...rmholesiy0.gif

The objects scientists think are black holes could instead be wormholes leading to other universes, a new study says. If so, it would help resolve a quantum conundrum known as the black hole information paradox, but critics say it would also raise new problems, such as how the wormholes would form in the first place.

A black hole is an object with such a powerful gravitational field that nothing, not even light, can escape it if it strays within a boundary known as the event horizon. Einstein's theory of general relativity says black holes should form whenever matter is squeezed into a small enough space.

Though black holes are not seen directly, astronomers have identified many objects that appear to be black holes based on observations of how matter swirls around them.

But physicists Thibault Damour of the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette, France, and Sergey Solodukhin of International University Bremen in Germany now say that these objects could be structures called wormholes instead.

Wormholes are warps in the fabric of space-time that connect one place to another. If you imagine the universe as a two-dimensional sheet, you can picture a wormhole as a "throat" connecting our sheet to another one. In this scenario, the other sheet could be a universe of its own, with its own stars, galaxies and planets.

Damour and Solodukhin studied what such a wormhole might look like, and were surprised to discover that it would mimic a black hole so well that it would be virtually impossible to tell the difference.

Hawking radiation

Matter would swirl around a wormhole in the same way as for a black hole, since both objects distort the space around them in the same way.

One might hope to distinguish the two by something called Hawking radiation, an emission of particles and light which should only come from black holes and would have a characteristic energy spectrum. But this radiation is so weak that it would be completely swamped by other sources, such as the background glow of microwaves left over from the big bang, making it unobservable in practice.

Another difference one might hope to exploit is that unlike black holes, wormholes have no event horizon. This means that things could go in a wormhole and come back out again. In fact, theorists say one variety of wormhole wraps back onto itself, so that it leads not to another universe, but back to its own entrance.

Daring plunge

But this does not provide a foolproof test either. Depending on the detailed shape of the wormhole, it could take billions of years or more for things to pop back out after falling in. With the right shape, even the oldest wormholes in our universe would not have had time to spit anything back out yet.

It seems the only way to decide the issue for sure with astronomical black holes is to make a daring plunge inside. That would be a dangerous gamble, because if it is a black hole, the incredibly strong gravitational field inside would tear apart every atom in your body. Even if it turns out to be a wormhole, the forces inside could still be deadly.

Assuming you could survive, and the wormhole was not symmetric, you might find yourself in another universe on the other side. Without further intervention, the wormhole would tend to suck you back in and carry you back to the opening in your universe.

Yo-yo motion

"The spaceship would do this yo-yo motion," Damour told New Scientist. "[But] if you use your fuel, then you can escape from the attracting power of the wormhole and explore" the space on the other side, he says.

But a friend in either universe might have to wait billions of years to hear back from you, since the transit time could be excruciatingly long.

Such a delay would make meaningful communication with anyone on the other side impossible. But the delay gets smaller with smaller wormholes. If a microscopic wormhole could be found or constructed, the delay across it could be as short as a few seconds, Solodukhin says, potentially making two-way communication possible.

Stephen Hsu of the University of Oregon in Eugene, US, who has studied the formation of black holes and the properties of wormholes, says he agrees that distinguishing between the two types of object with observations is practically impossible, at least with current technology.

Exotic matter

"The most important property of a black hole – that there is a 'point of no return' for an object falling in – is not something we can test at the moment," he told New Scientist.

Still, he says the objects out there suspected to be black holes probably really are black holes rather than wormholes. There are plausible scenarios for forming black holes, he says, such as the collapse of a massive star, but it is not clear how you would form a wormhole.

"Wormholes that might be confused with a macroscopic black hole require some kind of exotic matter to stabilise them, and it is not known whether such exotic matter exists," he says.

Solodukhin says that a wormhole might form in much the same way that black holes form, such as from a collapsing star. Physicists normally expect in these situations that a black hole would be produced, but Solodukhin says that quantum effects may stop the collapse just short of producing a black hole, leading to a wormhole instead.

Microscopic black holes

He says this mechanism might be inevitable in a more complete picture of physics that unites gravity and quantum mechanics – a longstanding goal of physics. If he is right, then wherever we used to expect black holes to form, wormholes would form instead.

And there might be a way to test the conjecture. Some physicists say that future particle accelerator experiments could produce microscopic black holes (see Atom smasher may give birth to 'Black Saturns').

Such tiny black holes would emit measurable amounts of Hawking radiation, proving that they are black holes rather than wormholes. But if Solodukhin is right, and microscopic wormholes are formed instead, no such radiation would be expected. "In that case, you would actually see if it is a black hole or a wormhole," he says.

An added benefit of wormholes is that they could resolve the so-called black hole information paradox. The only way anything can exit a black hole is in the form of Hawking radiation, but it is not clear how the radiation carries information about the original object that was swallowed. This scrambling effect conflicts with quantum mechanics, which forbids such erasing of information (see Black holes: The ultimate quantum computers?).

"Theoretically, wormholes are much better than black holes because all these problems with information loss don't exist in this case," Solodukhin says. Since wormholes have no event horizons, things are free to leave without first being converted into Hawking radiation, so there is no problem with lost information.

Just what I need, I thought it would be a relaxing day!

Isn't that what people used to think?

Funny how theories keep going around.

They'll have to remake that Disney film now :dabs:

Why does he keep dumping that stuff here..either it's the Drawing Room or the EveryThing Related, never the Lounge!

Spoiler: Show

The Truth About Black Holes

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Originally Posted by thewizeard

Why does he keep dumping that stuff here..either it's the Drawing Room or the EveryThing Related, never the Lounge!

Spoiler: Show

The Truth About Black Holes

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My last one got moved from the drawing room to here, so thats why I 'dumped' it here. Perhaps a new category should be implemented. Something like 'Quite interesting, too long to read and gets on thewizeard tits'.:P

This is probably the first article popopot has posted that i read the whole way through. I find these crazy blackholes fascinating for some reason. Maybe on the other side of one of these wormholes, theres an alternate universe where FST's BT section are much beloved by everyone :whistling

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Originally Posted by popopot

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thewizeard

Why does he keep dumping that stuff here..either it's the Drawing Room or the EveryThing Related, never the Lounge!

Spoiler: Show

The Truth About Black Holes

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My last one got moved from the drawing room to here, so thats why I 'dumped' it here. Perhaps a new category should be implemented. Something like 'Quite interesting, too long to read and gets on thewizeard tits'.:P

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It's not that exactly. In fact, I know he was quite positive about you, until you reminded him of his ancestry, in your monkey thread.

You see by doing that, you ruled out the possibility, that he could be God or even Buddha ( Matreya) , incarnate. That's what it is. He just needs some attention. Black holes is not at all recommended at this stage.

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Originally Posted by DefianceX

This is probably the first article popopot has posted that i read the whole way through. I find these crazy blackholes fascinating for some reason. Maybe on the other side of one of these wormholes, theres an alternate universe where FST's BT section are much beloved by everyone :whistling

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:dry:

You are risking a full BitTorrent Troll alert, do you wish to continue?

Yes I wish to continue. Come at me with everything you got.

That would be overkill. For flies I hang sticky paper.

po u put ur worm anywhere near my hole and we got problems, jack

You mean thats all you really have. A sticky paper. Hell, a blackhole cant contain a fly like me.

Heh..we are approching the truth again...

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Originally Posted by DefianceX

You mean thats all you really have. A sticky paper. Hell, a blackhole cant contain a fly like me.

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That took far too long. You are struggling on that strip.

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Originally Posted by MediaSlayer

po u put ur worm anywhere near my hole and we got problems, jack

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This is not really the truth thread but you are approaching the truth. :yup:

So here is a little more.. :)

Basically, you are within The Body you call God.

Which is why it's stupid praying to "Him". Just Imagine some renegade toenail cell, praying to you for forgiveness, when you kick your toe on the curb. That's the same sort of situation we are all in. and believe me, it's precarious.

Now I will continue somewhere else about black holes but for now, you might have just got the image, what happens in the area of black -holes, and more important, where they lead to, too....

No.

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Originally Posted by Skizo

No.

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And you base this proclamation on what.

Black holes, ..they lead to other organs that deal with the distribution of "food". Just like it happens within your body.

The food nourishes the body that you are within.

oeps :)

The most important of these organs is known as m87 . or Virgo A

http://www.mensap2p.com//Rafi/FreeLans/m87.jpg

What is the 'food'?

The food is that which disappears through the entry to say the stomach or other organ. This food is a mixture of elements and other compounds , that are within the materials that are heading for digestion, and /or redistribution.

Some black holes have other functions and could be a part of the nervous system, depending of course on what you are viewing. These holes, deal with the pure energy, and are mainly electromagnetic from composition.

I don't see anyone bringing up the idea that our own universe could be a kind of spherical rotating blackhole. It would explain the big bang.

The big bang is just a mis-understanding. It needs to be eliminated from your thoughts before you can grasp the smell of the taste,.. of the truth..

You need to use different senses to grasp the smell of the taste of the Truth. You
need to sort of, taste it and you shall!

..very soon

:)

Are you going to get religious on my ass or sumthin?

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Originally Posted by Joker

Are you going to get religious on my ass or sumthin?

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That's exactly what needs to be avoided.

Ok so what can we expect to..happen, soon...?