THE HUNT FOR WHITE HOLES

The search for these eruptions in space-time has begun. Will they leave the pages of science fiction and enter reality?

- Nicky Jenner

The cosmos is full of odd and extreme phenomena. Take everyone’s favourite behemoth, the black hole, for example. These dark, mysterious objects hungrily devour anything and everything within their reach. However, there is a light side to accompany the dark – and the dark black hole has its light equivalent in the intriguing white hole.

In simple terms, white holes are time-reversed black holes. If you were somehow able to film a black hole in action and play the tape in reverse, you would see a white hole. Rather than furiously dragging in and trapping matter, as a glutinous black hole does, a white hole spews material out into space, allowing nothing to enter it.

White holes exist within the general theory of relativity. In mathematical terms, white and black holes are possible solutions that fit within the set of equations compiled by Einstein in the 1910s. These equations describe how mass interacts with and warps the fabric of space. Any object with mass has a gravitational effect on its surroundings; the greater the mass, the greater the gravitational effect.

The laws of general relativity, as with most of the laws of physics, can technically run both forwards and backward. “If places where matter and energy can enter but cannot leave fit the equations, like black holes, then places where matter and energy can leave but cannot enter, like white holes, just as well,” explains Jeff Filippini of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “There’s nothing wrong with the idea mathematically – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that white holes are real.”