The concept of a white hole has always fascinated me. That there might exist such a region in space into which nothing can enter, but from which everything springs out is as fascinating as it is wierd.
Before reading further, be very clear that as of now White Holes appear only in theory and their existence has not yet been proven. Nor are there any known processes through which a White Hole could be formed. However, the concept of a White Hole is so compelling that physicists around the world are strongly attracted to the theory and believe that the existence of White Holes is possible.
so now,
What Is A White Hole?
Everyone knows about Black Holes as regions in space which suck inside everything around them (including light), but from whom nothing can escape. A White Hole, in essence, is thought about to be the exact opposite of a Black Hole . Instead of pulling in matter, a white hole expels it like a sort of cosmic exhaust valve, giving off serious amounts of energy.
There Is a theory which speculates that a Black hole in one universe opens up as White Hole in some other universe. According to the theory, the light and matter absorbed by a Black Hole in one universe ends up in another universe by escaping through a White Hole. Wacky as the idea may seem, the following image may help us to understand the theory better.
If this theory is to be given any credit, then it also postulates the existence of Multiple Universes and loopholes and time travel. However, we will talk more about those interesting stuffs in another post. The next Important question which arises before us is
If things such as White Holes exist, Where are they? Why cant we see them?
Is it possible that white holes are hiding in plain sight? In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking demonstrated that when a white hole and a black hole are in thermal equilibrium with their surroundings, they absorb and emit the same amount of radiation — and thus it’s impossible to tell them apart. So maybe some of the objects we think are black holes could be white holes in disguise. That’s one theory. However, the theory requires a special circumstance in which the While Hole must be in thermal equilibrium with the black hole.
The theory that’s going around these days is a rather simple one. At its most basic, the theory states that white holes simply wouldn’t be as stable as black holes are, and it seems that they would collapse almost immediately under the weight of their own gravity.
This is where inconsistency creeps in. Even though the idea of the existence of a White Hole is compelling, our current understanding of the universe states that they simply cannot exist.
Now, here is where i would like to tell you about an interesting incident.
On June 14, 2006 NASA’s Swift satellite detected a gamma ray burst which was labelled as GRB 060614. Gamma ray bursts are extremely strong bursts of electromagnetic radiations and are often associated with the collapse of a supernova.
The thing with GRB 060614 is that it didn’t fit with our understanding of where it came from – its long duration of 102 seconds meant that it had to be created in a supernova explosion, and yet there were no supernovas there for it to have come from. Without a supernova nearby, such extreme bursts cannot happen. Yet we have detected it.
Now, it’s being suggested that we might actually have caught sight of a white hole. The fierceness and duration of the explosion could well fit with a white hole briefly popping into existence, spewing out some matter, and then quickly collapsing into itself, resulting in this massive explosion. Although it’s not the most likely explanation , we cannot discredit it.
The trouble with our understanding of the universe today is that even though we have found out a lot , there are still a greater number of things about which we are clueless. This does not mean we must be disappointed and give up hope. We must keep looking for answers, and only through perseverance will we be able to answer the deepest questions of our universe.
Even though White Holes might just be a hypothesis today, i strongly believe that some day we might find some acceptable proof of their existence. Whatever we know about our universe today shows that the laws of physics are not comfortable with things that happen only in one direction. Which means, that if a black hole exists, then it should be possible to reverse the equations governing them so that you get something that’s reversed but otherwise identical. That’s what a white hole is.
– Santosh
PhysicsRat 