RIPPLES IN SPACE-TIME COULD REVEAL THE SHAPE OF WORMHOLES

Wormholes-gateways that could theoretically connect distant points in space-time, are usually illustrated as gaping gravity wells linked by a narrow tunnel. But their precise shape has been unknown. Now however, a physicist in Russia has devised a method to measure the shape of symmetric wormholes- even though they have not been proven to exist- based on the way the object may affect light and gravity. In theory, transversable wormholes, or four-dimensional portals through space-time, might function like this. At one end, the irresistable pull of a black hole would draw matter into a tunnel connected at the other end to a "white hole", which would fling matter at a location far away from the material's point of origin in space-time. Though scientists have observed evidence of black holes in the universe, white holes have never been found. Wormholes (and the possibility of interstellar travel that they suggest) thus remain unproven, though Einstein's theory of general relativity leaves open the possibility of their existence. However, even though wormholes may or may not exist, scientists do have substantial knowledge about the behavior of light and gravitational waves. The latter are the ripples in space-time that swirl around massive objects such as black holes. One wormhole property that could be observed, albeit indirectly, is a red shift in the light near the object. Redshifting is a decrease in the frequency of light wavelengths as they travel away from an object, resulting in a shift to the red part of the spectrum. If you know how light around a potential wormhole is redshifted, you can then use the frequencies of gravitational waves, or how often they oscillate, to predict the symmetrical wormhole's shape according to this scientific study. Gravitational lensing and electromagnetic radiation can also be used in relation to redshifting to further determine the symmetry of a possible wormhole.