Sometimes the world of science fiction overlaps with reality, as scientists are recently discovering that matter consumed by a black hole may, in fact, travel through the future, and spat back out again. Black holes have long been a mysterious aspect of the known galaxy. Not much is known about them or what happens once something is sucked into one. On December 10th, however, two physics papers may be able to explain the phenomena a bit more than we’ve ever been able to before.
In Physical Review Letters and Physical Review D, two reports suggest that black holes might not last forever and that what we formerly knew about them might not be that accurate, after all. According to the papers, we have misunderstood what black holes look like at the center.
Taking a theory known as loop quantum theory into account, the research suggests that space-time might be curved toward the centers of black holes. This results in space and time continuing into a region into the future which has characteristics of a white hole. Whereas black holes tend to suck matter in, white holes, of course, shoot matter out.
The papers theorize that, while gravitational density usually slows down time and black holes consist of the most concentrated forms of gravity, the matter that falls into a black hole bounces from this area of slower time, then shoots across the universe. If this theory is correct, then in the far away future, wherever black holes are present, matter will be emitted throughout the galaxy.
As with any theoretical science, this hypothesis has yet to undergo any real experimentation and, thus, cannot be proven or disproven just yet. Scientists can only patiently await what new discovers advancements in loop quantum theory will uncover, regarding black holes and this new, interesting theory.
