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What Are Wormholes, and Could They Be the Answer to Time Travel?

Wormholes, cosmic tunnels also known as Einstein-Rosen bridges, are a staple of science fiction. Could they allow real-world humans to travel back in time?

By Paul M. Sutter
Jul 26, 2023 6:00 PM
Wormhole
(Credit: Rost9/Shutterstock)

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The sci-fi landscape is littered with wormholes. From Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Rick and Morty to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these theoretical constructs allow characters to zip between distant points in the universe as easy as stepping through a doorway.

An Einstein-Rosen bridge is the simplest kind of wormhole. And while it can, in theory, allow you to meet a new friend from a distant part of the universe, there are some important reasons why it won’t let you travel back in time.

Black Holes, White Holes and Wormholes

Let’s start with everybody’s favorite astronomical mystery: a black hole. Despite their fearsome reputation, they’re actually rather simple creature. They have a point of infinite density, known as the singularity, in their centers. They are surrounded by a boundary called the event horizon.

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