How do Wormholes Work?

Is it Possible for Humans to Safely Use Them?

First, what is a wormhole?

Our universe is like a giant sheet that we call space-time. It can be bent, dented and even punctured. Wormholes are essentially portals that take you from one region of space to another almost instantly. You could travel large distances through space faster than the speed of light. There are also different kinds of wormholes.

Einstein-Rosen bridges are black holes that are also a sort of portal to another parallel universe that looks like ours but upside down and time moving backwards. The things that go into a black hole come out of the opposite of a black hole; A white hole. The only issue with these is that you can not cross them. The pressure would still be that of a black hole meaning, that it would crush you. Also, it would take an infinite amount of time to cross from one to the other; this means that we cannot use Einstein-Rosen bridges successfully.

We could also try and create a wormhole. If we were to make a wormhole, it would instantly collapse in on itself. To help keep it open, we need to use something call exotic matter. Exotic matter is matter with negative mass. Imagine that instead of exotic matter curving space-time downwards to create a dip, it’s creating a hill that nothing can reach the top of. we could use it to push on the sides of the wormhole to keep it from collapsing. The best part about this is that it most likely already exists and we can make it. 

But are they real? Or are they just Math and Physics?

Short answer: they aren’t real.

“It’s widely theorized that, under the right conditions, these shortcuts could be used as a sort of subway system through the galaxy. As exciting as that prospect is, the truth is nobody has ever actually found an existing wormhole, and as of this writing, they are purely theoretical.”

Artwork depicting a quantum experiment that observes traversable wormhole behavior. Credit: inqnet/A. Mueller (Caltech)

Although General Relativity says that they are possible, that doesn’t mean they exist. We currently have no evidence or proof of a wormhole. The closest we came to seeing a wormhole was on a quantum computer at the California Institute of Technology, also known as Caltech. “Scientists have, for the first time, developed a quantum experiment that allows them to study the dynamics, or behaviour, of a special kind of theoretical wormhole. The experiment has not created an actual wormhole (a rupture in space and time), rather it allows researchers to probe connections between theoretical wormholes and quantum physics, a prediction of so-called quantum gravity. Quantum gravity refers to a set of theories that seek to connect gravity with quantum physics, two fundamental and well-studied descriptions of nature that appear inherently incompatible with each other.”

“We found a quantum system that exhibits key properties of a gravitational wormhole yet is sufficiently small to implement on today’s quantum hardware,” says Maria Spiropulu

This all means that something in quantum physics behaves similarly to a wormhole. This is a link between wormholes and quantum physics.

But people use wormholes in movies!

In the popular movie, Interstellar, Cooper and the crew use a wormhole that was discovered near Saturn. They use the wormhole to go to a far-away galaxy in search of a new habitable planet. Unfortunately, even though Interstellar is known for its accuracy and position with the laws of physics, and even though they got well-known physicists to work on the movie, the wormhole in the movie Interstellar is just make-belief. 

In the movie, they said that the wormhole was purposefully placed there by “something of someone”.  It wasn’t naturally there. 

So to answer the big question, can humans safely use wormholes?

Not yet… but hopefully at some point. 

Sources:

Calvin, Whitney. “Physicists Observe Wormhole Dynamics Using a Quantum Computer.” California Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, 30 Nov. 2022, https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/physicists-observe-wormhole-dynamics-using-a-quantum-computer.

Devereux, Carolyn. “Curious Kids: What Is Exotic Matter, and Could We Use It to Make Wormholes?” Space.com, Space.com, 30 Oct. 2022, https://www.space.com/curious-kids-what-is-exotic-matter-and-could-we-use-it-to-make-wormholes.

Phillips, Patrick. “Times Interstellar Got Science All Wrong.” Looper, Looper, 22 Feb. 2023, https://www.looper.com/210013/times-interstellar-got-science-all-wrong/.

Tillman, Nola Taylor, and Ailsa Harvey. “What Is Wormhole Theory?” Space.com, Space, 13 Jan. 2022, https://www.space.com/20881-wormholes.html.

“Wormholes Explained – Breaking Spacetime.” YouTube, Kurzgesagt, 12 Aug. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P6rdqiybaw.

Written by: Michaela Bailey