<p>A wormhole, or Einstein-Rosen bridge, is inherently unstable. It will collapse before anything can traverse it. Keeping it stable enough for even a photon to get through requires negative energy densities. And that requires exotic and suspicious new physics in most cases. Technically there are well-known effects which can produce negative energy densities, such as the Casimir effect. But being able to harness such an effect to stabilize a wormhole is beyond current technology (to say nothing of creating the wormhole in the first place). We have no observational evidence to suggest wormholes exist, especially not on the scales you see in Sci-Fi.</p>

<p>So in the rapidly collapsing case it looks like nothing except possibly a spray of subatomic particles (which you might not even know aren't the usual background ones), and in the stable case it's impossible to say because you'd have to know what the exotic matter or other negative densities look like.</p>

<p>As for what it's like to traverse a stable wormhole, as long as the exotic matter doesn't mess with you then it would be pretty much the same as any other spaceship travel. You could just have interesting time travel effects and beat light rays that went around the wormhole. A number of these are mentioned on the wiki page.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-12T00:51:50.710Z
2014-11-12T00:51:50.710Z
zibadawa timmy
<p>In films such as Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Contact (and also Star Trek Deep Space Nine) wormholes are depicted as tunnels along the edges of which fantastical colours and shapes lie. For example, this is a picture from 2001:</p>

<p><img src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KJvwpd7xXM/UUXkAKsi0QI/AAAAAAAAJI0/lCbtiNc4Pn0/s1600/2001+a+space+odyssey6.jpg" alt=""></p>

<p>What would passing through a wormhole be really like though?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-10T21:31:06.843Z
@RobinCarlier In the book it describes it as a 'Stargate', and describes it as a wormhole kind of thing
Beta Decay
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-10T23:39:37.183Z
It could be like a black hole and die before you get in...
Juka
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-14T13:56:45.493Z
I fail to see how this is on scope for [astronomy.se]. Perhaps [physics.se], but it seems slightly too much based on fiction and not in the slightest on hard facts, so it could be rejected there too. The question seems to be about the _perceived motion smear_ (or however you wanna name it) as Hollywood envisions it when traveling faster than the speed of light, not any actually existing such optical phenomena. It's about as much on scope for [astronomy.se] as asking _what do you see when you close your eyes?_ I.e., it isn't.
TildalWave
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-14T13:57:29.300Z
This question does not appear to be about astronomy, within the scope defined in the [help].
TildalWave
<wormhole>
Is a Wormhole a tunnel?
Beta Decay
# Is a Wormhole a tunnel?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-11-10)

In films such as Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Contact (and also Star Trek Deep Space Nine) wormholes are depicted as tunnels along the edges of which fantastical colours and shapes lie. For example, this is a picture from 2001:

![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KJvwpd7xXM/UUXkAKsi0QI/AAAAAAAAJI0/lCbtiNc4Pn0/s1600/2001+a+space+odyssey6.jpg)

What would passing through a wormhole be really like though?

**Tags:** wormhole

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @RobinCarlier In the book it describes it as a 'Stargate', and describes it as a wormhole kind of thing  
> **username_1**: It could be like a black hole and die before you get in...  
> **username_2**: I fail to see how this is on scope for [astronomy.se]. Perhaps [physics.se], but it seems slightly too much based on fiction and not in the slightest on hard facts, so it could be rejected there too. The question seems to be about the _perceived motion smear_ (or however you wanna name it) as Hollywood envisions it when traveling faster than the speed of light, not any actually existing such optical phenomena. It's about as much on scope for [astronomy.se] as asking _what do you see when you close your eyes?_ I.e., it isn't.  
> **username_2**: This question does not appear to be about astronomy, within the scope defined in the [help].  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-11-12. Score: 1

A wormhole, or Einstein-Rosen bridge, is inherently unstable. It will collapse before anything can traverse it. Keeping it stable enough for even a photon to get through requires negative energy densities. And that requires exotic and suspicious new physics in most cases. Technically there are well-known effects which can produce negative energy densities, such as the Casimir effect. But being able to harness such an effect to stabilize a wormhole is beyond current technology (to say nothing of creating the wormhole in the first place). We have no observational evidence to suggest wormholes exist, especially not on the scales you see in Sci-Fi.

So in the rapidly collapsing case it looks like nothing except possibly a spray of subatomic particles (which you might not even know aren't the usual background ones), and in the stable case it's impossible to say because you'd have to know what the exotic matter or other negative densities look like.

As for what it's like to traverse a stable wormhole, as long as the exotic matter doesn't mess with you then it would be pretty much the same as any other spaceship travel. You could just have interesting time travel effects and beat light rays that went around the wormhole. A number of these are mentioned on the wiki page.


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