Chrysalis of air

Cities around the world light up to support Paris after attacks

The two-year-old child in this photo was stabbed tonight by a Palestinian man. The Palestinian man stabbed the child’s father and another Jew to death as they were leaving the Old City following prayers at the Western Wall, and the man also stabbed the child’s mother. She is in critical condition and fighting for her life. 

The sad and emotional paintings of Donatella Marcatajo — expressing her passion for women’s rights & freedom

White Holes & Wormholes: How Do They Work?

People like to think of white holes as wormholes, as gateways through the universe.

But how do they really work?

You fall into a black hole, zoom across spacetime, and are flung out of a white hole at some distant location. It would be pretty nice if this was how physics actually worked (it may make intergalactic travel a whole lot easier).

But unfortunately, this isn’t exactly how physics works.

White holes, to be clear, are entirely theoretical. As of this moment, we don’t have any evidence for them. In fact, most scientists think that they don’t exist. However, they are handy mathematical constructs that allow us to talk about the space surrounding a black hole in meaningful ways.

In short, if black holes deal with an amazing amount of mass, white holes deal with none at all. Theoretical models say that that a white hole cannot be entered from the outside. This is, of course, the complete opposite of what we know black holes to be (supermassive objects that cannot be exited).