Wormhole theory

Wormholes were first theorized in 1916, though that wasn't what they were called at the time. While reviewing another physicist's solution to the equations in Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, Austrian physicist Ludwig Flamm realized another solution was possible. He described a "white hole," a theoretical time reversal of a black hole. Entrances to both black and white holes could be connected by a space-time conduit.

In 1935, Einstein and physicist NATHAN Rosen used the theory of general relativity to elaborate on the idea, proposing the existence of "bridges" through space-time. These bridges connect two different points in space-time, theoretically creating a shortcut that could reduce travel time and distance. The shortcuts came to be called Einstein-Rosen bridges, or wormholes.

Einstein's field equations hit physics like a tsunami in 1915, and theorists are still sorting through the wreckage. Beyond describing the force of gravity, his HYPOTHESES also brought a paradigm-shattering message about the nature of reality. More than a rigid backdrop, space and time bend and fold along with the mass of stars and planets. That insight sparked a race to calculate just how much abuse space could take from the matter that drifts through it.

Within a year, physicist and astronomer Karl Schwarzschild found the first exact solution to Einstein's equations, calculating how space-time curves around a single ball of mass. In his answer lay the seeds of what physicists today call a singularity — a spherical mass shrunken down to an infinitely dense point, wrapping space around it so tightly that the region pinches off from the rest of the universe. It forms a no man's land whose event HORIZON fractures the link between cause and effect.

Black holes, the most famous singularities, are regions of space so warped that no exits exist. The OUTSIDE universe can influence the inside of a black hole's horizon, but the interior can't affect the exterior.