Tech - News
Do White Holes Exist in Space?
By BRIAN MYERS
According to Astronomy magazine, the first black hole ever observed by astronomers was first spotted in 1964 and dubbed Cygnus X-1, but its official black hole status wasn’t confirmed by multiple scientific studies until 2011. Proof of one side of a hole in space of course prompts the question about the other side: Do white holes exist?
Working off of Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity, the Australian physicist Ludwig Flamm suggested that a spacetime conduit could connect one side of a hole to the other. While black holes suck in light, white holes gush light outward. Objects cannot avoid being pulled to the center of a black hole, but would not be able to reach the center of a white hole.
Unlike black holes, white holes don't have a gravitational pull or impact on surrounding stellar objects that can be observed through a telescope. When scientists mathematically calculate the area that surrounds a black hole in space without factoring in the mass that exists inside its event horizon, they “create” a theoretical white hole.
Per Space, a white hole observed by a nearby spacecraft might look like a black hole for the most part, including evidence of rotation and a ring of gasses and dust around its event horizon. The difference between the two would only be made clear when the white hole began to belch out light, rather than pull all surrounding light inward.
At the moment, white holes are theoretical mathematical concepts that astrophysicists use to help further study black holes in space. Researchers haven't publicly disclosed proof beyond the theoretical that a white hole exists in space. They may very well exist, but for now, they're only really an idea.