Wormhole facts for kids
A wormhole is a scientific idea about a special tunnel through space and time. Imagine it as a shortcut that could connect two very distant places or even two different times. Scientists are not sure if wormholes are real or just a theory.
If wormholes do exist, scientists think they would be very hard to create. To keep a wormhole open, a special kind of "exotic matter" would be needed. This matter is also just a theory right now. Without it, a wormhole would close up almost instantly.
Think of space as a flat piece of paper. A wormhole would bend this paper, like folding it. This way, two points that were far apart could touch. The word "wormhole" was first used by a scientist named John Wheeler. Wormholes are also sometimes called an Einstein-Rosen bridge. They are like a tunnel with two openings, each in a different part of space-time. So far, no one has ever seen a real wormhole.
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Wormholes in Stories and Movies
Wormholes are very popular in science fiction stories and movies. They are often used to explain how characters can travel across huge distances. This includes going between different star systems or even different galaxies. In these stories, wormholes also sometimes allow characters to travel through time.
This idea of quick travel makes it possible for humans to explore the stars. It also makes time travel seem possible.
How a Time Machine Wormhole Might Work
Scientists have thought about how a wormhole could be used as a time machine. Here is one idea:
- Imagine one end of a wormhole.
- This end would travel very, very fast, almost as fast as light.
- Then, it would come back to where it started.
Another idea involves gravity:
- One end of the wormhole would be moved close to something with very strong gravity.
- Then, it would be brought back near the other end.
For both ideas, the end of the wormhole that moved would experience less time passing. This is called time dilation. It means that end would be "younger" than the end that stayed still. However, if you travel through the wormhole, clocks at both ends would always seem to be in sync. This is different from how time works outside the wormhole.
Images for kids
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Wormhole visualized in 2D
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Image of a simulated traversable wormhole that connects the square in front of the physical institutes of University of Tübingen with the sand dunes near Boulogne sur Mer in the north of France. The image is calculated with 4D raytracing in a Morris–Thorne wormhole metric, but the gravitational effects on the wavelength of light have not been simulated.
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Wormhole travel as envisioned by Les Bossinas for NASA, c. 1998
See also
In Spanish: Agujero de gusano para niños
