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Stellar Wormholes May Exist

Posted by samzenpus on from the into-the-gamma-quadrant dept.

seagirlreed writes "Pairs of stars could be connected via wormholes filled with 'phantom matter,' according to Kyrgyz researchers. If a wormhole exists within a star, the stellar body may exhibit measurable properties astronomers might detect. Although interesting, other scientists are skeptical, pointing out that this is highly speculative research."

5 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. This reminds me of a Stargate Universe episode... by FlapHappy · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know, the one that starts, "If we just flying the ship into the sun..."

  2. Re:First post? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    You go first.

  3. any evidence at all? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is there any evidence to support this hypothesis whatsoever? Or is this purely based on random scifi-based wishful thinking? The article seems to say "if you accept that A (which really has nothing to support it at all) is true, then B can also be true." Uhh, yeah.

    1. Re:any evidence at all? by stardaemon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Which may be interesting if B also gives A, and B is testable.
      Otherwise, not so much.

      --
      The only way to stay sane in an insane world, is to be mad yourself...
  4. Strange Matter by mbone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The original paper makes it clear that this, like every other wormhole solution in General Relativity, requires "strange matter" - in their case, "as exotic matter, a massless ghost scalar field has been chosen". The interesting thing is that it links two stars together in a way that may have observable consequences (material would flow from one star to the other to keep the pressure in the cores equal, which would change how the star would evolve from one in isolation).

    Note that these wormholes require the "exotic matter" to exist, so it's a mistake to say that this proves they can exist or whatever, as there is no actual evidence for any of the strange or exotic matter possibilities required to support them.

    Now, suppose that such exotic matter does exist. Could this be used for transportation by an advanced civilization ? Maybe. You would have to find a wormhole end point in orbit about a black hole, and wait (or engineer) for the star to expand and for the black hole to "eat" the star's gas. If that process could go to completion, voila !, a naked wormhole would be left, and, if that were stable, you could use it for transportation.

    Figuring out the necessary black hole engineering to do this is left as an exercise for the reader.