THE MAKING OF A WORMHOLE
1 Collapse of the core When a gigantic star dies, when it no longer has any nuclear fuel to burn, sometimes a black hole is formed. The core has no choice but to collapse in on itself in the catastrophic explosion of a supernova. The devastated star’s outer layers are expelled into space, while the core continues to shrink in size. 2 A cosmic plug hole Shrinking smaller and smaller, the core continues to pale in significance. While it has shrunk to a speck, all of its mass is concentrated in a very small area. This forms a singularity. If you place anobject onto a bed sheet, it makes a dent. Anything moving towards the dent will fall towards it, which is how gravity affects the universe. 3 The makings of a doughnut A star’s core can still be found to be spinning when it decides to collapse. Crumbling to a singularity, it rotates faster and faster, spinning so fast that what’s left of the star’s material spreads out. Spacetime is no longer focused on a single point, but is being wrapped around space ring. 4 Punching through space The tunnel punches its way through the fabric of space-time and, almost in an unusual state of reversal, emerges backwards in time and into the past. This tunnel, which can work its way into another parallel universe, is called an Einstein-Rosen bridge, or wormhole. Any matter grabbed by the black hole is passed through t his tunnel.
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Exit
If you were to travel through a wormhole, you would reach its far side, which can be likened to a black hole in reverse: the white hole. Matter pulled in by the black hole will emerge from the singularity found at the white hole’s centre and released.