A question about wormholes

[Valentin the II]

Can anyone tell me how (theoretically) can wormholes be created/opend and destroyd/closed?

[chris_uk_83]

Seemingly not. You have to go quite far into general relativity to understand the theory and I for one don't know anything like enough about it. I just know it's meant to be theoretically possible, but you need more energy than we could ever produce. Something like the energy of a black hole or supernova or something. Don't quote me on that though.

[Da Skinna]

Can one just open up and swallow the Earth just randomly? Would we know if one could?

[Medicus]

Can one just open up and swallow the Earth just randomly? Would we know if one could?

1. Wormholed
   
   You will need: A stable Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen bridge, a.k.a. a wormhole.
   Method: Depending on how powerful your technology is, there are a variety of possible methods. Bridging the centre of the Earth with the centre of the Sun would do the trick very efficiently, with the Sun's million-degree heat instantly boiling the Earth from the inside.
   Alternatively, open a large wormhole at the Sun's core and the other end in deep space, rapidly venting all the Sun's fuel and hastening its transition to the Red Giant stage. Drain all this fuel rapidly enough and you might even be able to cause a supernova.
   You could even bridge the Earth's core with deep space, causing it to implode - although the toothpaste-shaped remnant appearing at the other end may well collapse back to form a planet again.
   Earth's final resting place: Variable.
   Feasibility rating: 2/10. Wormholes probably aren't actually scientifically possible, and even if they are: opening one at the centre of the Sun? Come on.
   Source: This method suggested by Daniel Swartzendruber.

From How to Destroy the Earth, or Geocide.

I'm no scientist, but I think wormholes are (theoretically) possible. The chance of ever coming across one I think is virtually impossible. Creating one would require technology several orders of magnitude better than what we have now.

[Syron]

Traversable wormholes are allowed for in the solutions to Einsteins equations and General Relativity, that doesn't mean they do exist. In fact eventual changes to GR via Quantum Gravity may show them to be impossible.

Assuming they can, I've heard of a few ways it could be done. In one you'd need such massive charged bodies (i.e quite a bit more massive than the sun) moving near the speed of light to literally "punch" a hole in spacetime. Basically they all come down to the same thing, **** loads of energy. By the time we develop such ability we probably will have found out other means of instantaneous travel.

The original bridges devised by einstein et al actually would collapse instantaneously as they are unstable. According to some ideas you'd have to use negative energy/exotic particles to stabilise the wormhole, problem is we don't even know if negative energy exists!

So, it's not really looking good!

[Spurius]

although the toothpaste-shaped remnant appearing at the other end may well collapse back to form [...] again.

Well, next time you fly, if you have the window seat at 8 miles up, and drill a hole into the window, that's your intended way of leaving the premises. Toothpaste.

I wonder if a person will form again at the other end, and if that person when magically resurrected will truly appreciate the surroundings.

[Simetrical]

Well, next time you fly, if you have the window seat at 8 miles up, and drill a hole into the window, that's your intended way of leaving the premises. Toothpaste.

Only in movies. Actually, the pressure difference would be under one atmosphere. You could stop up the hole with your hand, although it might be painful (and good luck getting it off again). It's not likely to break bones.

[Spurius]

Only in movies. Actually, the pressure difference would be under one atmosphere. You could stop up the hole with your hand, although it might be painful (and good luck getting it off again). It's not likely to break bones.

I guess - if you read it like this:

One consequence of cabin pressurization is that the pressure inside the airplane might be 70 kPa (10 psi), while the pressure outside is only 15 kPa (2 psi). An otherwise-harmless pinhole under these pressure differences will generate a high-pitched squeal as the air leaks out at supersonic speeds. A hole a metre and a half (5 feet) across will depressurize a jetliner in a fraction of a second.

It doesn't *sound* that innocuous - but I guess getting sucked out (which does happen, although your lungs are at bigger risk apparently) needs a bigger hole than a pinhole. Yeah, air disaster movies probably exaggerate just about every detail.

[Simetrical]

You can get sucked out, but not by "poking" a hole in the wall. To get sucked out, the hole needs to be big enough for you to be sucked out through; otherwise you'll get stuck for a few seconds until the pressure equalizes, at worst. At that point, of course, you'll be half-dead if not entirely dead, for a wide variety of reasons, but you're not going to be squeezed into toothpaste or anything close.

[Spurius]

You can get sucked out, but not by "poking" a hole in the wall. To get sucked out, the hole needs to be big enough for you to be sucked out through; otherwise you'll get stuck for a few seconds until the pressure equalizes, at worst. At that point, of course, you'll be half-dead if not entirely dead, for a wide variety of reasons, but you're not going to be squeezed into toothpaste or anything close.

Severely crumpled, I take it.

Back to the topic - a wormhole's pretty small though, no? Or is that all autoshrink and stretchback as you go in and out?

[Simetrical]

A wormhole is defined, more or less, as a region of space-time that's not simply connected (i.e., it has a hole in it). Nothing in the definition prevents it from being as large as you like. Einstein-Rosen bridges, a specific type of theoretically-maybe-possible wormhole, are not traversable in the absence of exotic matter, according to Wikipedia.

[Spurius]

But the size of the mouth is decided by the amount of energy/mass you put in, no? I see talk of Jupiter-sized stuff. That's quite a tall order.

[Simetrical]

But the size of the mouth is decided by the amount of energy/mass you put in, no? I see talk of Jupiter-sized stuff. That's quite a tall order.

I'm not sure if anyone has proved any necessary conditions for wormholes based on general relativity. There have been some sets of sufficient conditions that have been proved (none practical for the foreseeable future), but I haven't heard about necessary conditions. If no one's come up with any of those, well, then there are no restrictions on wormhole formation we know about yet. It's a reasonable guess that it would take a considerable amount of energy, I suppose, not knowing anything about general relativity.

[Ummagumma]

The only real wormholes we are likely to (ever) see are the ones that leave little piles of dirt on your lawn. Wormholes are much less impressive than Mole/Rabbit/Badger ones anyway.