Black holes exist (for sure). They are 'sinks' (anything that gets caught up in one, even light, is sucked in and can never get out). We can 'see' them by the way light is 'bent' around by the massive Gravitational field of the black-hole.
White holes are nothing but a theory on a theory.
The theory goes, 'if Black holes suck in all that energy, then maybe it will all come out again some-where else ?'. This is 'justified' by running the equations for a black hole backwards ...
Since no-one has ever seen a white hole (they should be dead easy to see given that some black holes are 'eating' whole Galaxies, and the energy of a Galaxy spewing out from a point source would be a bit difficult to miss), the 'some-where else' is said to be 'the other side of the Universe' (or 'in a parallel Universe')
A Worm-hole is science fiction. The idea is, bolt a Black hole onto the front of a White hole and 'open them up' by some magic means (again, you run equations backwards - this time those relating to Gravity - all you need to 'open up' a worm-hole is 'exotic matter' with 'negative gravity').
Having a worm-hole means if you go in at the Black-hole end you come out again at the White-hole end. Thus (by magic, i.e. exceeding the speed of light) you can go 'instantly' from one side of the Universe to the other (or maybe from this Universe into a parallel one).
It is of course total bunkum - a bit like discovering the recipe for how eggs make omelette's and then (by running the recipe backwards) claiming omelette's lead to eggs (white holes) and from this you can hatch chickens (worm-holes) :-)
2006-12-22 08:16:38
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answer #1
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answered by Steve B 7
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A black hole and a white hole are basically the same thing because they both absorb matter and a worm hloe is thought to take you from one place in the universe to another
2006-12-22 09:09:04
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answer #2
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answered by JR 1
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I Googled all 3 terms just to be sure I had my facts straight.
Read on and/or follow the links below.
"A black hole is defined to be a region of space-time where escape to the outside universe is impossible. The boundary of this region is a surface called the event horizon. This surface is not a physically tangible one, but merely a figurative concept of an imaginary boundary. Nothing can move from inside the event horizon to the outside, even briefly.
Theoretically, a black hole can be any size. Astrophysicists expect to find black holes with masses ranging between roughly the mass of the Sun ("stellar-mass" black holes) to many millions of times the mass of the Sun (supermassive black holes).
The existence of black holes in the universe is well supported by astronomical observation, particularly from studying X-ray emission from X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei. It has also been hypothesized that black holes radiate energy due to quantum mechanical effects known as Hawking radiation."
"In astrophysics, a white hole is a postulated celestial body that is the time reversal of a black hole. While a black hole acts as a point mass that attracts and absorbs any nearby matter, a white hole acts as a point mass that repels or (perhaps) even ejects matter.
White holes appear as part of the vacuum solution to the Einstein field equations describing a Schwarzschild wormhole. One end of this type of wormhole is a black hole, drawing in matter, and the other is a white hole, emitting matter. While this gives the impression that black holes in this universe may connect to white holes elsewhere, this turns out not to be the case for two reasons. First, Schwarzschild wormholes are unstable, disconnecting as soon as they form. Second, Schwarzschild wormholes are only a solution to the Einstein field equations in vacuum (when no matter interacts with the hole). Real black holes are formed by the collapse of stars. When the infalling stellar matter is added to a diagram of a black hole's history, it removes the part of the diagram corresponding to the white hole.
The existence of white holes that are not part of a wormhole is doubtful, as they appear to violate the second law of thermodynamics."
"In physics, a wormhole is a hypothetical topological feature of spacetime that is essentially a "shortcut" through space and time. A wormhole has at least two mouths which are connected to a single throat. If the wormhole is traversable, matter can 'travel' from one mouth to the other by passing through the throat. While there is no observational evidence for wormholes, spacetimes containing wormholes are known to be valid solutions in general relativity."
2006-12-24 00:35:47
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answer #3
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answered by peter_lobell 5
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