What’s The Difference Between A Black Hole And A Wormhole?

While a black hole leads to a dead end known as a singularity, a wormhole theoretically creates a bridge between two points in time and space. It’s definitely science fiction, and this theoretical concept has been used in many fictional books and movies over the years. The truth is, scientists have absolutely no idea if it actually exists.

The wormhole theory is based on facts formed in 1915 by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. A year later, Austrian physicist Ludwig Flamm postulated about a “white hole” — the opposite time reversal of a black hole — where a tunnel could somehow connect entrances to both, and the theory of the wormhole was born. After honing his theory of general relativity for almost a decade, Einstein concluded that massive objects could actually warp the fabric of space-time, with the resulting distortion manifesting as gravity. While working with physicist Nathan Rosen in 1935, the two proposed the idea that “bridges” through space and time might exist to close the vast distances between two points, making space travel feasible, according to Space.com. That shortcut is known as the Einstein-Rosen bridge (also known as a wormhole).

Where a black hole sucks things in and never lets them go, a wormhole can move something from one place to another — possibly even through time and other universes — as long as we can find one, and eventually prove the theory stands up to reality.