Black holes – Space Age

Einstein Rosen Bridge- Wormhole Theory

Monica was an inquisitive fifteen-year-old girl who was always in the pursuit of learning more and experimenting with various concepts. She was a very bold teen who never backed down to a challenge and always questioned age-old beliefs and primitive religious ideologies. On a fine Saturday afternoon, Monica finished her assignment that encompassed the core concepts of Einstein’s theory of relativity. She was fascinated by the theory of interstellar travel through Einstein’s Rosen Bridge, popularly known as wormholes. She wanted to know more about this concept, so she turned to her father for an explanation.

Monica’s father, Richard, was a theoretical astrophysics and cosmologist who often kindled Monica’s interest in Physics and Astronomy. He always made it a point to address his daughter’s queries patiently despite his busy schedule.

What are Wormholes?

Monica asked, “Hey dad, I have been looking into the concept of Einstein’s Rosen Bridge but couldn’t make heads or tails of it! Can you please explain?”

Richard replied with a sparkle of excitement in his eyes, “Wow, Monica, I am so glad that you are interested to learn more about this wonderful theory. It would be a pleasure for me to explain this to you.”

He continued, “Monica, to understand the theory about wormholes, you need first to know Einstein’s theory of general relativity and its relevance to the Rosen Bridge. Since general relativity states that the region of space and time can be bent and is not static, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosan further elaborated on the idea. They proposed the existence of space-time through bridges that connect two different points in space-time. This bridge was coined as the Einstein Rosen bridge.”

“I understood the concept of the bridge, dad. Can you elaborate on the use of this bridge?” Asked Monica.

“Sure honey, since these bridges connect two different points in space-time, it could reduce the travel time drastically. If you are looking to travel to a place that is several lightyears away, wormholes can make your journey much faster.”

Monica asked, “But dad, don’t the laws of physics state that no object of mass can travel at or faster than the speed of light?”

“Yes, that’s right, dear, but when it comes to the concept of wormholes, it establishes a portal that directly ships you to another point in space-time in an instant. It is kind of like taking a shortcut to your favourite fast-food place.”

Are there White Holes?

“Wow, dad, that was quite insightful. Can you please tell me more about the principle of how wormholes function?” asked Monica.

The Einstein Rosen bridge theory was further expanded where massive blackholes play a vital role in linking two areas of space. Richard explained, “as we have seen from Einstein’s theory of relativity about black holes, matter and light that gets sucked into the black hole is spat out through a white hole in another region of space or even another dimension, perhaps even a multiverse.”

Monica said, “sounds so cool, dad. Does that mean that white holes exist?”

“No honey, the existence of white holes and wormholes are only on paper; they haven’t been proven. No telescope has spotted a region in space where matter and light are being emitted. Also, there is no proof that black holes are portals to other regions in space or another universe; it is all just speculation.”

The Scope of Wormholes

“Oh, I see,” said Monica with a disappointed expression on her face. “So, let’s assume that wormholes are real; if so, what are they useful for?”

Richard replied, “sweetheart, if wormholes are real, they can be used for a wide variety of interstellar travel and travel between galaxies in a zap.” They would be like shortcuts to destinations that would normally take hundreds of years to reach, that is assuming that we could travel at the speed of light. Even though an object would travel slower than light inside the wormhole, it would reach a destination before light itself, as the region inside a wormhole is like taking a very easy shortcut to a location.

“Oh my god, that is so amazing, dad! Hey, tell me what expert scientists have to say about wormholes? Monica said with her eyes filled with excitement.”

“Did you know that several scientists have theorized some concepts that could suggest that wormholes could exist? Yeah, Stephen Hawking says that wormholes could be all around us, but they would appear microscopically small. Within every piece of matter, including time itself, there could be very small holes and wrinkles that are smaller than an atom. Due to them being so tiny, there is no possible way to travel between or manipulate them.”

Magnetic Wormholes

Monica said, “This is really fascinating, dad. Are there other types of wormholes?”

Richard said, “the Einstein Rosen bridge is the theory of a gravitational wormhole, whereas another type of wormhole is known as a magnetic wormhole. A magnetic field can be transferred from one place to another through a magnetically non-detectable path in a magnetic wormhole. Hey, did you know that physicists in Spain were able to create a magnetic wormhole in 2015? They created a tunnel that enabled a magnetic field to disappear at one point in space and reappear at another. Using metasurfaces and metamaterials, they constructed a tunnel that was able to achieve this near unimaginable feat.”

“Thanks for this amazing insight dad, you have made the theory of wormholes play like a documentary movie in front of my eyes. I would love to submit an article explaining this concept for my science project.”

“That’s my girl, remember Monica, the field of science is always ever-evolving, who knows, in the future, we could probably stumble into some mind-blowing evidence that could prove things which are far beyond our current knowledge. Always explore, don’t limit the potential of your brain to mere bookish knowledge, and expand your thinking beyond the horizons of humankind.”

A Tribute to Stephen Hawking

Meet the man who gave a new definition to the universe, a cosmologist, a passionate physicist, and a genius who was born to mesmerize the world with his voracious intellect. Stephen William Hawking was one of the world’s greatest theoretical physicists and an indispensable asset in the field of cosmology and particle physics.

A Legend is born

Stephen Hawking was born on 8th January 1942 to a relatively well to do family in Oxford, England. In his initial years, he was not academically successful but eventually showed excellence in scientific subjects and mathematics. He was also known as Einstein during his school days. He studied at Oxford university college, which was an utter cakewalk for him as he found most subjects ridiculously easy. However, he went into depression when he was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), during his graduate years, and doctors gave him only two years to live. Despite this severe blow in his life that rendered him speech impaired and physically challenged, Hawking cheated death and soared to great heights with his thoughts pervading in every young astrophysicist well past his demise.

New Beginnings

Hawking came to Cambridge to study with one of the world’s famous cosmologists back in the 1960s, Sir Fred Hoyle.

Hoyle strongly believed in the steady-state theory, which inferred that the universe has no beginning or end. This theory stated that matter would continuously be created as the universe expands, in utter disagreement with the big bang notion of an indefinitely dense initial state. The steady-state theory was widely accepted among the most renowned astrophysicists at that time.

Young Hawking was eager to flex his neurons and genius intellect; he called his doctoral thesis properties of expanding universes. During his first months at Cambridge, he was interested in Narlikar’s calculations and began hanging around his office opening discussions and sharing ideas. He became more engrossed with Narlikar’s difficulties with the project Hoyle assigned.

In a talk at the prestigious royal society, Hoyle discussed the latest ideas based on Narlikar’s calculations. After his speech, he asked the crowd whether they had any questions, flaunting his appreciation with a sheepish grin filled with pride. Much to his dismay, Hawking stood up and said, “the quality you talk about diverges.” Filled with ego, Hoyle says, “How do you know?” Hawking replies, “Because I worked it out.” Hawking goes on to showcase his paper summarizing mathematical methods he had used and proved the divergence of Hoyle’s equations.

Hoyle was furious as an embarrassed laugh passed through the audience. He had his work refereed openly by an unknown post-graduate student.

Limitless Intellect

One of the Oxford tutors supervising Hawking’s work in statistical physics assigned several problems from a textbook. Only to be greeted with a list of mistakes in the textbook marked clearly with a valid explanation. His mind knew no bounds as he harnessed extreme intellect that enabled him to decipher even the most complex calculations and postulates into simple yet understandable concepts.

As Hawking was nearing his end of term at Oxford, he met with a terrible fall in the staircase due to the beginning effect of ALS, which resulted in a temporary memory loss. However, even ALS stood no match, as Hawking passed with flying colours!

A New Perspective of the Universe

Albert Einstein predicted the existence of black holes through his theory of relativity. Black holes stemmed from massive stars that collapsed. However, this black hole theory was not well understood by scientists due to the lack of exploration and complex nature of the concept.

Hawking took it a step further and notched it down for easier understanding. He christened a new definition to the black hole theory that established the existence of black holes as reality and not just a theory that could be debunked. With his remarkable brain, he proved certain rigorous mathematical theorems of Einstein’s equations for gravity. Under general circumstances, he showed that there were places where equations broke down and coined them singularities. The region inside a black hole, in which even light cannot escape, is known as a singularity.

Yes, Black holes Shrink, Hawking Radiation

In his initial research, Hawking was of the strong impression that the size of a black hole remains constant and never changes. However, after some vigorous research and rethinking, he proved that black holes could shrink as they radiate energy, thereby reducing mass. This energy that radiates is known as Hawking radiation.

Hawking theorized that this radiation from virtual particles was constantly popping into and out of existence in the bizarre quantum realm. This happens in matter-anti-matter pairs, where one has positive energy and the other with a negative. Hawking also emphasized that black holes have tendencies of evaporating or boiling themselves away in a brilliant burst of energy equal to a million 1 megaton hydrogen bombs, astounding, isn’t it?

Gracefully Dealing with Criticism

A successful person is always prone to criticism; Stephen Hawking was not new to that. He faced criticism from other scientists who coined the black hole information paradox. This paradox was a puzzle with the combination of quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Hawking proved that once a star dies, all its mass would collapse into a single point of infinite density that results in a singularity. The information paradox stated that once the black hole collapsed, all information is lost, thereby violating the principle of quantum physics that information cannot be destroyed as it stays constant. Hawking debunked the paradox with his witty argument that information is not lost but is encoded in particles emitted by the radiation.

Hawking’s contributions to physics are a force to be reckoned with. His level of intellect was beyond comprehension and blew the minds of renowned cosmologists and scientists. He established a strong foundation for scientists in the future by bridging several gaps in quantum cosmology, black holes, thermodynamics, and various riddles in the universe. His contributions would pave the way for future research and reshape our understanding of the universe.

Black Holes: What are They?

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of black holes? You may be thinking, all right, they are giant holes in space which can devour planets. Well you are right, but what if I told you that black holes are far more powerful than you can imagine. Read on to know more about these amazing extra terrestrial vacuum cleaners.

Stars have a lifespan of about 10 billion years (1000 crore years). Once they reach the end of their lifespan, they will turn into a red giant and burn on reserve fuel. For medium sized stars such as our sun, the end of this phase will result in the formation of a planetary nebula which results in the formation of a white dwarf. However, in the case of stars which are more than 15 times the mass of our sun, they will collapse under their own gravity thereby causing a massive explosion. This explosion is known as a supernova. During the explosion, a rip in space time will occur thereby creating a hole. Only if a star which is 25 times the mass of our sun goes supernova, a black hole will form, as smaller explosions do not contain enough energy to damage space time.

Once the black hole is formed, every planet within its vicinity will be sucked into it. It is like a devastating whirlpool. Black holes are so powerful that even light cannot escape it. This is the reason why black holes are so dark.

Recent News

There have been numerous photos of black holes which are just artist impressions. However, on April 10 2019, a group of scientists at Event Horizon Telescope Observatory have captured the first ever image of a black hole. This is truly a remarkable achievement for humanity.

Even Horizon: What’s on The Other Side?

The event horizon is a point after which light cannot reach our eyes. Since black holes are so powerful that even light cannot escape them, you simply cannot see the what is on the other side. Picture a spacecraft falling into a black hole. The moment it crosses the event horizon, the spacecraft will appear to remain in free fall. However, in reality, the object would have already got sucked into the hole faster than the speed of light, thereby leaving an image of its last location. Yes, this is no optical illusion, its science.

When there is a rip or damage in space time, a singularity occurs. Picture an area of space where there is no gravity, no light, and that the laws of physics do not work. Yes you guessed it, this is a singularity. What happens when you divide a number with zero? The answer is infinite or indefinite right. This is the mathematical explanation for a singularity.

Does Nothing Really Escape it?

So, you may be wondering, if black holes are so powerful then nothing could really escape it right. Hmm, you are partially correct. No object of considerable mass can escape it, however, some amount of radiation can escape it.

At the event horizon, the black hole will capture one pair of particle-antiparticle matter. This causes an electromagnetic radiation which leaves the vicinity of a black hole. This electromagnetic radiation is known as Hawking radiation as it was the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking who came up with this amazing theory.

Myths About Black Holes

There are several myths about black holes that are derived from science fiction movies. Here are some common myths.

Myth 1: The volume of a black hole is huge.

Fact: Black holes have varied mass, they are classified as small, massive and supermassive.

Myth 2: If you get sucked into a black hole you will travel to another dimension.

Fact: You seem to be strongly influenced by the movie interstellar. In reality, a black hole can literally vaporize a star which has a far greater mass than the sun even before it reaches the event horizon. So, just imagine what it could do to your body. Moreover, black holes do not lead to wormholes. Wormholes exist in theory but are not proven.

Myth 3: Our sun will eventually become a black hole.

Fact: Our sun does not have sufficient mass to go supernova let alone create a singularity.