Monolith149 Daily

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Can You Cross a Wormhole?

Do worm holes even exist? At Smithsonian.com, Victoria Jaggard writes the article “Would Astronauts Survive an Interstellar Trip Through a Wormhole?”

Given the state of current physics the answer is, No. The idea of worm holes has come and gone in the science world, though it never quite leaves. The Kerr metric solution to Einstein’s general relativity equations applies to “rotating” black holes and adds new twists, however there’s still not really a way for humans to get through.

Just like crossing an event horizon is beyond the edge of our universe, these ideas are beyond the edge of our science. Of course we don’t know everything and I have no doubt there are amazing things still to be discovered. I’d never say it can’t happen, just that we don’t have a good mechanism in our current astrophysics toolbox unless we toss in a little magic. Just like it is with faster-than-light travel.

Despite his ties to the film, [cosmologist Kip] Thorne is also pessimistic that a traversable wormhole is even possible, much less survivable. “If they can exist, I doubt very much that they can form naturally in the astrophysical universe,” he writes in the book. But Thorne appreciates that Christopher and Jonah Nolan, who wrote Interstellar, were so keen to tell a story that is grounded in science.

There’s more to come on this topic and other folks have weighed in.

Would Astronauts Survive an Interstellar Trip Through a Wormhole?