Everything you need to know about a white hole
The story line of the popular science comedy fiction The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy talks about the creation of luxury planets by the people of planet Magrathea from matter retrieved from white holes. A white hole is a fascinating hypothetical feature just like the black hole. The most interesting part is that they are both polar opposites and are believed to be quantum entangled.
So, how different is a white hole from a black hole? The black hole is a place from where light can never escape, but a white hole is a one-way passage from where light and matter can escape. However, both structures (the black and the white hole) possess the same mathematical and geometrical features.
Black holes occur in surrounding dust, stars, and even when a spaceship passes by, or anything which is too near. On the other hand, white holes radiate light, where matter can escape in the universe. Several decades ago, both were entirely conceptual, but now black holes are associated with many astronomical objects. Surprisingly, a black hole was spotted in the heart of our home galaxy the Milky Way recently.
| Stephen Hawking’s black hole theory defines it as a huge mass in a small space. Its gravity is powerful and light cannot escape from it. Hence, the blackness. |
According to a research conducted by Shlomo Heller and Alon Retter in May 2011,a white hole could be the Gamma-ray Burst (GRB 060614).
| GRB 060614, a labeled gamma-ray- burst, detected on June 13, 2006 by Swift satellite of NASA. It ‘s,associated with supernovae and occurs in the regions where the formation of the stars are low. The white hole is the result of the burst of a gamma ray. Probably, for the longest duration of about 103 seconds. |
White holes also have properties of angular momentum, mass and charge. Like any other mass they also attract matter, but objects falling inside a white hole would actually never reach it’s horizon.
Interesting facts about white holes:
- White hole may have been witnessed by scientists when white light burst out suddenly and vanished in no time.
- As per the theories by several scientists, a wormhole could connect two points in time instead of connecting two points in space. This connection between two holes has the potential to allow time travel too.
- Black holes if reversed in time is nothing but a white hole
- According to Stephen Hawking, emission and absorption of radiation is in the same amount when in the state of thermal equilibrium which makes them indistinguishable.
- Physicist Stephen Hsu stated that if it’s not in a state of equilibrium,and is surrounded by space with empty vacuum, the absorption will be nil resulting in explosion which releases thermal energy in huge amounts.
In the world of astrophysics there are many theoretical phenomena like this. The existence of white hole might be just a concept but questioning, wondering and trying to unravel the mysteries behind them is what increases our knowledge. So, until we find answers to the mysteries of the universe, let’s keep exploring.