Can black holes become white holes?
Remy, age 9, Wangaratta, Victoria
Hi Remy!
Thank you for this great question.
The short answer, unfortunately, is no.
For now, they are an idea.
So if time was running backwards, black holes would look like white holes.
But time doesnt run in reverse in our universe.
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To understand more, lets start by thinking about how black holes work.
Whats a black hole?
When you drop a tennis ball, it falls to the ground due to what we call gravity.
The Earth is very heavy, so it pulls the tennis ball down.
This mysterious object would pull so powerfully that nothing inside could escape to the outside.
A spaceship with the biggest rocket boosters couldnt escape.
This kind of object is a black hole.
Whats a white hole?
As we watch it, wed never see anything escape the black hole.
We would instead see the black hole eat anything that came too close.
We get lucky: as we watch, the black hole swallows an entire star!
Our movie, titled Black hole eats a star gets a million views online.
But now imagine if we played it in reverse.
Are there white holes?
We have good evidence from our telescopes that black holes really do exist.
His theory describes how black holes work, with their huge gravitational pull.
Einsteins idea also says white holes arepossible.
So could our universe actually make a white hole?
And could a black hole become a white hole?
Something can be possible as an idea, but also extremely unlikely in real life.
White holes are unlikely because they are an in reverse kind of thing.
Its possible, but it would mean time had turned itself around and started running backwards.
As best we can see and measure, time in our universe only flows in one direction: forward.
So for now, white holes are just an interesting possibility.
