Linking white holes and black holes: the wormhole

Wormholes are based on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a theory which suggests that objects with a great gravitational field create a depression in the fabric of space-time. It is this theory that is able to predict phenomena such as black holes. If the mass of a collapsed star is great enough, it can warp spacetime to such an extent that matter is sucked into the hole created by the object’s gravitational mass. Back in 1916 physicist Karl Schwarzschild offered that where

matter is sucked in, on the opposite end matter is spat back out again, which could possibly be in the form of a white hole. According to physicist Kip Thorne the tunnel-like shortcut that connects them – known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge after Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen – could serve as a means of time travel

with help from time dilation.

If you move one of the ‘mouths’ of the wormhole to a great speed while the other remains still, the progression of time would be different at the opposing ends. We aren’t able to travel back in time, but we can move through to the far future or

return to the near present with the help of a wormhole.