Finding Wormholes In The Universe

in #science4 years ago

Wormholes are hiding within the equations of general relativity. We still haven’t forgone the hope that they could exist. But how to find them?


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Einstein’s relativity allowed us to understand the Universe and the principles of physics better than any other theory. But it also brought us dark secrets that continue to escape even our greatest minds. For example, black holes and while we managed to find them we still don’t understand fully what they are and what is going on in them. Another thing hiding in the relativistic equations are wormholes. And these could be potentially even more interesting.

Physicists dream of many types of wormholes. And at least some of them truly believe that they could exist. Wormholes are incredibly fascinating as they could be passable and work as shortcuts through three-dimensional space allowing for speeding up the travel through the Universe. Wormholes, if they exist, are of course quite extreme objects, and creating them will not be easy. But the possibility of their existence is still possible. Some physicists even think that in the early Universe primordial wormholes could have been created for virtual particles and some might even exist to this very day.

If wormholes truly exist and are out there in the Universe, how could we find them? A team of Russian scientists led by M. Piotrovichz from the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory recently came with the idea that wormholes could exist in the centers of some very bright galaxies. They started with the idea that when matter comes out of such a wormhole on one end it should collide with matter that is brought there by the gravity of the wormholes themselves. The calculations of the Russian team show that such collisions should create impressive beams of gamma radiation. And we can search for that.

Such gamma radiation could be the key difference between wormholes and black holes. So far, experts thought that they should be almost indistinguishable from the outside. Black holes do also generate gamma radiation but this gamma radiation is focused and comes from the poles of the black hole. On the other hand, the gamma radiation coming out of a wormhole should be more intense and would look like a giant sphere.

The idea that the centers of galaxies could have wormholes and not supermassive black holes isn’t new. The gravity of objects on the other side of wormholes should “leak” through the wormholes. And this gravity would slightly affect the orbit of stars near what we perceive to be supermassive black holes. Detailed analysis of the orbits of such stars could lead us to wormholes if they are there. Astronomers recently discovered what they are calling ORC (Odd Radio Circles) and these are so far defying all attempts to explain them and wormholes have been mentioned in relation to them. Thus, we can be sure that we won’t be bored in 2021.

Sources:


*https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.09411


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