The Black Hole Escape Hatch: Could We Enter Another Universe?

If you ever find yourself in an Interstellar-esque situation where you’re being pulled into a black hole, don’t lose all hope. You might actually be transported into another universe.

Black holes got their name because nothing was thought to escape them. However, physicist Stephen Hawking suggested that there could be a way out of a black hole through another universe.

In a discussion given at Harvard, the renowned physicist talked about a groundbreaking theory, saying that black holes do not keep physical information about anything they absorb. He said, “Black holes aren’t the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole, both from the outside and possibly through another universe.” So, if you ever feel you’re in a black hole, don’t give up, there’s a way out!

The Game Changer: Hawking Radiation

Back in 1974, Hawking introduced what was dubbed “Hawking radiation,” a new theory that absolutely shocked the world of physics. He claimed that black holes actually thermally create and emit subatomic particles until they lose all their energy and completely evaporate.

This means that black holes are not entirely black, nor do they last forever. This was a radical departure from the conventional wisdom at the time, which said that black holes were places where gravity pulled so hard that nothing, not even light, could escape.

The Mystery of Lost Information

Every particle in physics essentially has information, a kind of “fingerprint” that makes it distinct. This is super important in quantum physics, where two seemingly distinct and separate particles can actually affect each other even across vast distances.

So, what happens when one of these particles gets sucked into a black hole? Where does the information go? Does it still act on its counterpart?

According to Hawking, these particles might not just come out when the black hole vanishes. The information about what went inside the black hole, aside from the amount of rotation and the total amount of mass, would appear to be lost.

The Trouble with Determinism

Hawking explained that if the information about the bodies that form black holes isn’t lost, then black holes contain a lot of information that is hidden from the outside world.

However, if the information is indeed lost, it would fundamentally change the way we think about science.

• For more than 200 years, we have believed in the science of determinism. That is, the laws of science determine the evolution of the universe.

That’s a pretty big deal. Hawking is suggesting that because science is built on determinism, where you gather information and use it to form a conclusion, it’s impossible to maintain that within a black hole.

And as Hawking pointed out, that has some troubling implications: if determinism can break down inside a black hole, it can also break down everywhere else.

Imagine, for a moment, the idea that our history, our memories, are just all illusions. What we know to be true based on what we’ve learned might cease to exist in a moment. Basically, according to Hawking, the history books and our memories could just be illusions. It is the past that tells us who we are; without it, we lose our identity.

Size and Scope

Hawking said it’s possible that black holes could be as massive as the distance from the Sun to Jupiter, which would have a diameter of about a billion miles. But they could also be relatively tiny, about the size of a mountain. It may even be possible for humans to create minuscule black holes.

Hawking’s recent focus has been on one of the lingering mysteries about black holes: what happens to matter when it gets sucked into one? He no longer believed that the contents of that matter were destroyed.

He compared it to burning an encyclopedia: “The information is not lost if you keep all the ashes, but it is difficult to read.”

He also suggested it’s possible that the matter is sent to another universe, making it seem like it simply disappeared from our own.

I find this story incredibly interesting. It goes to show that science, as we know it, is still developing. A theory, or even something we have long accepted as fact, may change as new information is discovered. Perhaps the only thing that is absolute is that there are no absolutes.

Got a question for you all: If we developed the technology to somehow transport a human being in a spacecraft into a black hole as an experiment to see where it goes, would you volunteer? There’s a chance that it may go to another universe, a chance that you may die and never be able to get back out, or maybe a chance you’ll be able to time-travel like Matthew McConaughey!