A cosmologist explains the mind-bending hypothesis that our universe could have branched off from a black hole singularity in another universe.
Key takeaways
- Some scientists think our universe could have started from a black hole singularity in another universe.
- Both black holes and our universe have event horizons, points beyond which escape is impossible.
- Black holes and the universe share singularities, points of infinite density where normal physics breaks down.
- Unlike black hole singularities, the Big Bang singularity is a point in time, not space, making them fundamentally different.
- There’s a wild idea that black hole singularities might create new universes, meaning our universe could be a “bubble” from another universe’s black hole.
Our Universe Has Something in Common With Black Holes
Another surprising discovery is that the cosmos and black holes have two other characteristics in common. The event horizon, or surface of a black hole, is arguably the most identifiable feature. This is the area surrounding a black hole, signifying the last point of no return. Because gravity is so powerful inside the event horizon, you have to escape by traveling faster than the speed of light, which is impossible, leaving you trapped. in the true sense.
Our cosmos has an event horizon, too. However, the cosmic event horizon is very far away and is created by the universe’s expansion. Every day, our universe expands, and as a result, more distant galaxies move away from us quicker than nearby ones. Galaxies twice as far appear to retreat twice as swiftly; galaxies 10 times farther away appear to fade ten times quicker; and so on. At a certain distance, around 14 billion light-years away, galaxies appear to be traveling away from us faster than light.
This is not a breach of the speed of light limit since space is expanding, not the galaxies moving. But it still results in an event horizon. Even if we had unlimited time, humans would never be able to travel to galaxies more than 14 billion light-years distant. We will never be able to catch up as the distance between us grows. These galaxies are eternally shut away from us, just as the outer universe is unreachable to someone who has fallen into a black hole.
The presence of a singularity is the second trait that black holes and the universe share. A singularity is a point of infinite density when gravity has crushed all stuff into an endlessly small point. To be clear, we don’t know exactly what a singularity is since comprehending singularities needs a quantum description of gravity (i.e., a gravity theory that operates at extremely small scales), which we have yet to create.
Black holes have a singularity in the core, which is where all of the matter that created them goes. If you fall into a black hole below its event horizon, you will also end up there. Because of the peculiar nature of gravity and geometry within a black hole, once you pass the event horizon, you are certain to reach the singularity in a finite amount of time, regardless of how hard you try.
Our cosmos too has a singularity. We call it the Big Bang. Around 13 billion years ago, all of the stuff in our universe was compressed into an unimaginably small point. It spread from there, and the rest is history, with the formation of particles, atoms, stars, and and galaxies and planets and people.
… But That Probably Doesn’t Mean Much
Therefore, even if our universe has an event horizon and a singularity, it doesn’t quite fit the definition of a black hole. The peculiarities’ nature is the issue. The singularity of a black hole is located in a specific location in space. If there’s a black hole in the area, I may indicate the location of the singularity. And I can get there (and die terribly, but that’s an other tale) if I happen to fall inside the event horizon.
at contrast, the Big Bang’s singularity exists at a single position in time rather than in space. The Big Bang singularity, also known as the cosmic singularity, does not have a physical location in the cosmos. We will never attain it. We can never go there. It is only present in the history of every single entity in the cosmos.
This may appear to be a small issue, yet it is really important in gravity mathematics. The Big Bang singularity and black hole singularities are fundamentally distinct things that act in vastly different ways. This distinction indicates that we cannot live within a massive universe-sized black hole, because the singularity of a black hole is not similar to the Big Bang singularity.
Our Universe Could Still Have a Surprising Link to Black Holes
However, the singularity’s existence during the Big Bang could indicate something else. The fact is that our knowledge of what occurs in a black hole’s core is limited. Our theories of gravity are not sophisticated enough to allow us to understand the real nature of the singularity. Furthermore, some really bizarre notions have been generated in an attempt to understand what may be going on in the heart of a black hole.
It’s very likely that black hole singularities are more than just extremely compressed blobs of stuff, and that there is more to this narrative. The realm of physics may become strikingly strange and alien at extremely small sizes. Massive instabilities in the system can result from the extraordinary strength of gravity combined with the strange operations of quantum physics.
These vast instabilities may increase, resulting in the production of branched-off “bubbles” that are totally isolated from the universe that contains the initial black hole. These bubbles would have their own Big Bangs, expansions, and everything else, completely distinct from one another. They would be their own universes, apart from the parent universe from which they originated.
This is a really crazy idea: our world might have emerged from quantum chaos within another universe’s black hole. It’s also quite speculative; it’s an intriguing concept based on some very fragile and questionable physical principles. Still, we don’t know enough about singularities to rule them out totally, so they’re certainly interesting to consider in the meanwhile.
