Our world is a rather strange place. Physicists have long assumed that our Universe may be just one of many, and one of the most mysterious objects in the Universe - black holes - may turn out to be portals to other worlds. But what if black holes are not portals to other worlds, but portals for travel through space and time? Indeed, black holes are balancing on the line between science fiction and science fact. On the one hand, scientists have seen black holes devour stars that are too close to them. On the other hand, at the edge of the black hole, a place known as the event horizon, from where nothing, not even light, can escape. But what happens to the spacecraft if it gets there?
What's going on inside a black hole?
Given all the data we have about black holes, scientists believed that nothing good awaited us inside these massive objects. However, recent computer simulations have shown that once inside a black hole, you can travel to a distant part of the Milky Way or to another galaxy. In this case, one of the safest portals may be a supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy - Sagittarius A *. Writes about this Business Insider with reference to researchers from NASA.
We don't know what's going on beyond the event horizon inside a black hole. Scientists agree that if you go far enough into a black hole, gravity becomes so strong that it destroys everything in its path. But sci-fi films are more optimistic - in them black holes are portals for travel through space and time or portals for travel to other worlds. In fact, at the center of every black hole is a point of infinite density called a singularity. It is the singularity that gives black holes a strong gravitational pull. For decades, scientists believed that the singularities of all blacks are the same, so everything that passes through the event horizon will be destroyed in the same way: everything will stretch and stretch like infinitely long spaghetti.
But that all changed in the early 1990s, when various research groups in Canada and the United States discovered a second singularity, called the "mass inflation singularity." This discovery suggests that it is theoretically possible to survive the journey through a black hole. You will be stretched but ultimately not killed, meaning the journey through the black hole can be survived. More precisely, through a large rotating black hole in which singularities of this type exist. Now astronomers need to find a suitable black hole to test this theory. And the best place to check is just Sagittarius A * - a supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy, which is located at a distance of 27,000 light years from us.
Considering that there is no way to get there, verification of this theory is possible only with the help of computer simulation. This is exactly what scientists from Umass University Dartmouth and Georgia College did. According to the results obtained, once inside Sagittarius A * at the right speed and at the right time, you may not feel anything at all.
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Beyond the black hole
As for what happens when you get to the other side, there is practically nothing to say. But the study authors have their own ideas.
According to the researchers, there is a possibility that you will find yourself in some distant part of our galaxy - potentially remote from any planets or stars, and according to the second probability, you may find yourself in another galaxy. It all depends on how far into the black hole you manage to get. Still, scientists believe more research is needed before we get any closer to a successful trip through a black hole. But when we're ready, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way could be our lucky ticket to another galaxy.
Lyubov Sokovikova
