Wormholes Exist IRL? Here's Everything About Einstein-Rosen Bridge Theory That Inspired 'Dark'

The sci-fi series Dark is just a show but it has left us all with bigger questions that apparently no one has answers to. Hailed as one of the best sci-fi shows ever made, Dark makes us question our existence and if reality is real.

As the popular line from the show says, ¡°The end is the beginning, the beginning is the end¡±.

This show is just not about time travel, it throws a lot of science in your face that is difficult even for science geeks to understand. Even though no one has truly been able to understand concepts and ideas explored in the show, everyone is going gaga over it.

If just like me, you too wonder if wormholes can or if they do exist in real life, here is everything you need to know about the Einstein-Rosen Bridge theory that raises the possibility of a parallel universe, the space-time concept that inspired Dark.

What is a wormhole?

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You have seen it in movies. Perhaps, you have imagined it too. Doesn¡¯t it sound exciting to just hop on to another planet or galaxy in just a blink of an eye? It took us 9.5 years to reach Pluto, a dwarf planet which is a part of our solar system. Wormhole is basically a thing that offers us a shortcut to travel in space.

Wormholes are basically a bridge between white and black holes.

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Wormholes, also known as Einstein-Rosen bridges (named after physicists Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen) are basically a bridge between black hole (that sucks matter) and white hole (that emits matter out). In other words, while black holes allow matter to enter into it, white holes emit energy and do not allow anything to enter into it.

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To picture a wormhole, imagine that a sheet of paper is space. Mark a point at each end of the paper. To travel from one point to another, you either take the regular or the longer route, or you bend the paper to bring the two points closer without letting them touch each other, thus creating a tunnel that reduces the time and enables time travel. This theoretical connection between two points of space-time is a wormhole.

Have you seen a wormhole before? Yes, in films like Thor, Interstellar and more!

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The Bifrost Bridge that we saw in Thor is basically an Einstein-Rosen bridge, a type of wormhole that lets Loki travel throughout the galaxy. In other Marvel movies, the Avengers travel in different realms because of the several wormholes.

In Interstellar, a wormhole is created by mysterious beings near Saturn allowing Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey) and the crews of the Lazarus Project and later the Endurance a chance to travel light years away to another galaxy that potentially contains habitable worlds.

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Fun Fact: The original draft of Interstellar had six wormholes and five black holes. However, Nolan thought it would be ¡°way too confusing¡¯¡±. Hence, they went with one wormhole and one blackhole.

Similarly, movies like Star Trek, Contact, Pacific Rim and Stargate among others have also shown wormholes.

Now, the big question is - Do wormholes exist in real life?

Although wormholes are a fascinating concept, nobody knows if they exist in real life. According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, they are possible, but there is no sign of its existence so far.

Can wormholes be created?

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There is no mechanism to create a wormhole known so far -- either naturally or artificially.

Richard F. Holman, a professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon University, told scientificamerican.com that Stephen Hawking had conjectured even if wormholes are created, time travel wouldn¡¯t be possible. Why? Because wormholes are inherently unstable. The only thing that can stabilize a wormhole is "material having negative energy density" also known as ¡°exotic¡± matter. So far, all forms of matter familiar to physicists and chemists have positive energy density.

Furthermore, Hawkings argued that even if the matter is used in an attempt to stabilize it, as soon as it will be inserted in the wormhole, the wormhole will destabilize quickly and collapse before the matter could stabilize it.

Traversable wormholes can however lead to space-time travel

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What are Traversable wormholes? These are a kind of wormholes that are held open "long enough for a signal or object (spaceship) to pass through", says William A. Hiscock, who is a professor of physics at Montana State University, Bozeman, and is the director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium.

This is based on the theory that if a wormhole is static, it contains ¡°exotic¡± matter already. But at the same time, it seems very unlikely that Traversable wormholes exist naturally and there is a very dim chance that they can be artificially created, as per scientists.

So to conclude wormholes are hypothetical entities. Even if they exist, they won¡¯t be able to ensure time travel, because as soon as a particle enters inside, it would collapse.

If the science geek in you wants to understand and study more about wormholes, you should take a look at Lorentzian Wormholes: From Einstein to Hawking by Matt Visser.