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Cool Black Hole Fact

Black Holes

What about all this wormhole stuff?

The article, "Natural Wormholes as Gravitational Lenses," (Physical Review, by John G. Cramer, Gregory Benford, Geoffrey A. Landis, Matt Visser and Michael Morris) explains one theory underlying the possible existence of exotic forms of dark matter such as wormholes.

According to Landis, a scientist at NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, a wormhole is a theoretical object permitted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, where distant regions of space are connected by a shortcut.

"Wormholes, although allowed by the theory of relativity, are theoretically unstable," says Landis. "However, at the time of the formation of the universe in the big-bang, wormholes could have been stabilized by loops of negative mass cosmic string. If so, they would still be here, and it is worthwhile to look for them. If we find one, the implications are enormous."




 

A service of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), Dr. Andy Ptak (Director), within the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) at NASA/GSFC

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