White Holes....

Mind Blowing Facts About White Holes

Introduction

Black holes are difficult enough to understand, but it gets much worse: also known as an “impossible possibility”, a white hole is a hypothetical, celestial body that emits energy—in the manner of a time-reversed black hole. In simpler language, a white hole is the opposite of a black hole. While a black hole sucks in all matter that crosses its event horizon, a white hole explosively pours out all the matter that was initially lost in the black hole.

This is a hypothetical concept, and can be quite difficult to wrap our heads around. But hopefully, by the end of this list, we’d have learnt a lot more about this fascinating phenomenon.

The Opposite of a Black Hole

A black hole is a region in space-time with such high density and gravitational pull that nothing, not even light, can escape from it. Once an object crosses its event horizon, it undergoes a gruesome-sounding process called spaghettification, and is lost into oblivion. For example, if a light-emitting particle crosses a black hole’s event horizon, its light wavelength will grow longer and longer, and will lose energy until it’s no longer detectable. Moreover, the powerful gravitational forces in a black hole would make time appear to go slower, to a distant observer—such that it would appear to take infinite time to even reach the event horizon.

Hence, if a black hole resembles a one-way portal to oblivion, would there be any way to enter that portal from the other end, and travel in the opposite direction? Theoretically, this thought should make perfect sense-since General Relativity and Newtonian physics are time-symmetric concepts. And this opposing gateway is a theoretical concept, known as a white hole. White holes may be considered the time-reversed equivalent of a black hole.

Due to their elusive nature, white holes are described as “mathematical oddities”, and are generally considered as fictional and fantastical as dragons and krakens. In fact, white holes have even been regarded as “cosmic creatures that straddle the line between tall tale and reality”.

Summer Sale

The Creation of a White Hole

Most black holes are formed when stars collapse in a supernova explosion. However, it has been suggested that black holes end their lives by transforming into white holes—which explosively pour out the information that had been swallowed by the black hole. According to this model (developed by Carlo Rovelli and Hal Haggard from Aix-Marseille University), the transition of a black hole to a white hole would occur right after the formation of the former.

As a black hole is formed, it is shielded by its event horizon (beyond which nothing can escape); however, at one point, the star that is collapsing under its own gravity will reach a point beyond which it cannot shrink any further. At this moment, it experiences an outward pressure called a quantum bounce—which transforms a black hole into a white hole. As concluded by the calculations of the team, the transformation should be instantaneous. However, it would seem like black holes exist for billions of years due to their intense gravitational pull, which makes time appear to go slower to an observer.

As written by Nature, “If black holes turn into white holes and release all of their innards out again, it could provide a solution to one of the most troublesome questions of fundamental physics” (more specifically, the information paradox). However, in this sentence, the word “if” is crucial—for it reminds us that white holes are still largely hypothetical concepts, and that this proposal is only a theory.

Have we detected a White Hole?

White holes ceased to become complete theory after an unforgettable discovery on June 14, 2006. On this day, an extraordinarily powerful gamma-ray burst was sighted by the Swift satellite (of NASA); this phenomenon was called GRB 060614. However, this gamma-ray burst did not fit into the normal category and parameters of these phenomena, since such processes take place in regions of low star formation or are commonly linked with supernovae.

Moreover, whereas typical gamma-ray bursts last for only a few seconds, the one detected in June 2006 had lasted for a remarkable 102 seconds, and was trillions of times more powerful than our own star! And since this sudden, massive burst didn’t originate from a supernova, astronomers and astrophysicists could only conclude that it had emerged from… nowhere, or from an infinitesimally minuscule speck, and had then collapsed upon itself once those 102 seconds were over.

The features of the 2006 gamma-ray burst perfectly matched with the little knowledge humans have about white holes: i.e., the spewing out of a huge amount of matter in a few minutes, before disappearing into oblivion. Certainly, the occurrence of this astonishing phenomenon does not confirm the existence of a white hole… but it does lead to some interesting speculation.