“Some scientists think it may be possible to capture a wormhole and enlarge it many trillions of times to make it big enough for a human or even a spaceship to enter.”
- January 8, 1942 – March 14, 2018
- British
- Theoretical physicist, science writer
- Announced the black hole singularity theorem and Hawking radiation, and contributed to the popularization of science with his book “Talking about the Universe”
Quote
“Some scientists think it may be possible to capture a wormhole and enlarge it many trillions of times to make it big enough for a human or even a spaceship to enter.”
Explanation
This quote touches on the concept of wormholes, which are hypothetical passages through space-time that could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. The idea of wormholes comes from general relativity, Albert Einstein’s theory of gravitation, which predicts the possibility of curved space-time. A wormhole, in essence, would act as a tunnel with two ends at separate points in space-time, potentially allowing for faster-than-light travel between distant locations in the universe.
The quote suggests the idea that scientists are exploring the possibility of enlarging a wormhole to make it large enough for a human or a spaceship to pass through. This is a speculative idea in theoretical physics, as wormholes themselves have not been observed. Moreover, the enlargement of a wormhole would require overcoming immense technological and physical challenges—such as stabilizing the wormhole (since naturally occurring wormholes would likely collapse instantly) and dealing with the immense amounts of energy and exotic matter that might be required to keep the wormhole open. Concepts like these are often discussed in the context of advanced space travel and science fiction.
Hawking, as a theoretical physicist, was deeply interested in the nature of space-time and black holes, and he explored many speculative ideas, including those related to wormholes. However, while he acknowledged their theoretical possibility, he also recognized the practical barriers to such concepts, especially when it comes to traveling through a wormhole. The idea of using wormholes for space travel is still firmly in the realm of speculation rather than established science, with many uncertainties surrounding whether such phenomena could ever be observed or utilized in practice. The future of space exploration may one day depend on breakthroughs that could bring ideas like wormholes into a more practical domain.
