Encyclopedia of Opinion
Question
What is a black hole?
Position4 of 4
Inside a black hole
Argument3 of 3

A portal to another universe

Black holes have been theorized to contain wormholes, which could serve as a pathway to alternate universes.

The argument

Black holes result as a solution to Einstein's mathematical equations of relativity. Another, opposite solution, known as a white hole, is also mathematically possible. A white hole is the exact opposite of a black hole: instead of sucking in any matter that crosses its event horizon, a white hole would shoot out matter from its event horizon. According to theory, each black hole could be connected to a white hole. The black hole sucks matter in, and the white hole sends that matter back out. These holes would be linked through a wormhole and could be located in completely different areas of our Universe or even entirely separate universes. In modern physics, spacetime is characterized as one bendable surface. Objects with high gravity rest on the surface and bend it inward toward them. A wormhole would work as a result of this bending. If two spacetime sheets were stacked on top of one another, like two books, a wormhole would travel directly through them as a whole, instead of going all the way around. Due to a black hole's immense gravity, the fabric of spacetime would bend so much that it could break, breaking through to the other layer of spacetime. In this way, a wormhole would skip enormous amounts of space and serve as a portal to a completely different place. Wormholes are a very fringe theory of astrophysics and have many critics, as it is a very difficult theory to prove. However, there is research being done on the possibility of the situation. Wormholes are extremely unstable and would require lots of "negative energy" to go against the pull of gravity threatening to collapse them. Researchers have demonstrated that very small wormholes could become stable and be balanced out by the expansion energy of the Universe. If this were the case, the wormholes would be so small that only the force of gravity could get through. Scientists could test this by very accurately measuring the orbits of stars around a black hole, and detecting any influence that could be the gravity of something from another universe acting upon the stars through the wormhole.

Premises

[P1]Einstein's relativity equations also permit white holes—the opposite of black holes—which theory suggests could be linked to black holes by wormholes leading to other regions or even separate universes. [P2] A black hole's immense gravity could bend spacetime enough to break through to another layer, forming a wormhole that acts as a portal to a completely different place. [P3] Although wormholes are a fringe, hard-to-prove theory, researchers suggest small ones could be stabilised by the universe's expansion energy and tested by measuring star orbits. [C] The inside of a black hole may be a portal to another universe.

Counter-arguments

Wormholes are purely theoretical. No direct observation of black hole centers has been made, so we have no clue what is inside of them. A wormhole and a different universe are totally nonsensical ideas with no proof or evidence to back them up. For a wormhole to remain stable, it would require immense amounts of negative energy, but negative energy does not exist. Just because wormholes can exist based on the theory of relativity, does not necessarily mean that they do.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] That the equations admit white-hole solutions does not make them physical: the white-hole region belongs to the eternal, maximally extended solution, and a black hole formed by stellar collapse — which is the only kind observed — has no such region, so the pairing the premise relies on does not arise. [Rejecting P2] The bridge in that same solution is not traversable, pinching off faster than anything could cross it, so bending spacetime until it "breaks through" describes an image rather than a mechanism, and general relativity supplies no process by which a collapsing star produces one. [Rejecting P3] The stabilisation the premise cites depends on exotic matter with negative energy density in quantities never observed, and the proposed test would detect only a gravitational anomaly — which many ordinary explanations would fit — so what is offered as supporting research is a statement of what would have to be true rather than evidence that it is.