White Holes | Space Time

Black holes are very well known but... What is a White Hole?

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Black Hole Playlist

How Time Becomes Space Inside a Black Hole

Are You a Boltzmann Brain?

Lurking in the depths of the mathematics of Einstein’s general relativity is an object even stranger than the mysterious black hole. In fact it’s the black hole’s mirror twin, the white hole. Some even think that these could be the origin of our universe.

Written by Drew Rosen and Matt O’Dowd
Hosted by Matt O’Dowd
Produced by Rusty Ward
Graphics by Kurt Ross
Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow

Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters:

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[AverageAlien]

As someone said before, if you're ever feeling too smart, humble yourself with one of these videos.

[fvckinfool]

It amazes me how Einstein’s theory and equations branched off into so many other theoretical phenomena. Legend legacy.

[JohnWoodell]

Please make a video on April fools day where you talk about something completely absurd, but in a very confident way like you do here.

[otaku-chan]

When the Penrose diagram came up I officially lost the plot lol

[annajermaineestenor]

Astrophysics Peter Dinklage’s voice is very calming

[dylangroves]

Who else was acting like they understood what he was talking about but was completely confused at the diagram part

[sunnysamaroo]

The penrose diagram is my favourite recurring character on space time. After seeing it on at least 3 episodes so far, I'm understanding it better each time :D

[fromthefuture]

Pulls out Penrose diagram.

Me: aight I'm out.

[PanagiotisLafkaridis]

In this parallel spacetime region in the other side of the penrose diagram, there is a PBS Spacetime, where this video is about black holes.

[marcpeterson]

Back in the 70's, I remember hearing theories that Quasars were white holes. That was before we realized that they were black holes at the center of galaxies.

[WeLoudMusic]

The level of focus I show when trying to understand your videos would have been so useful at school.

[Nemo_Anom]

As soon as I saw the half-filled penrose field, I saw the implications for white holes to be both star-like (the past of black holes) and like the Big Bang. It also seemed like, if we had a magical ship, we could enter the black hole and exit in the white hole, making it a form of one-way time travel. It could also be that every black hole has an exit as a white hole in a new universe. I think that could be plausible.

[amsterdam]

"it sounds strange but it gets stranger" describes all of your videos :))
loving it!

[KroniklyStoned]

The smarter we get, the more we realise how dumb we actually are

[brendan]

Wouldn’t the event horizon appear as a “white hole” type boundary to an observer on the interior of the black hole?

[BreauxSegreto]

Four years after its release - I continue to love watching this episode… encouraged by all the current quests of science to explain white holes. I continue to, using my minuscule physics background, ponder the possibility of white holes (using Penrose diagrams and Schwartzshield metrics). Math May claim it’s “possible” however I can’t wrap my head around the possibility due to the second law of thermodynamics. Some theorize that white hole may originate at the singularity of a black hole, how can the gravitational force immediately convert to a repulsive force. I have concluded that a while hole is “possible” however, only at the merger/impact of two universes (M theory) 😉 Thank you Matt for the infinite knowledge provided. Cheers

[Chrono]

Entropy only has to increase in a closed system. We have no way of knowing if anything outside of the observable universe is a closed system.

[wcsxwcsx]

Who needs drugs when you've got this stuff?

[artisorak]

"You'd need to reverse entropy"




... imma go clean my room

[imjustheretomasterdebate]

Everything that goes into a black hole travels in time to the beginning of the universe.
The only white hole we know of was the big bang itself.
This is why all the information seems lost and it is impossible to see through a black hole.
Even light is sucked into the distant past of the universe to meet the singularity of the beginning of time, the big bang white hole.

And that's why everything is connected, past, present and future are consequences of each other.