Exiting Wormhole Prematurely: Where Does Your Ship End Up?

  • B
  • Thread starter Gondur
  • Start date
  • Tags
    Wormhole
In summary, your ship would end up exiting the universe where it would be sent in a different direction back towards the point from which it entered the wormhole.
  • #1
Gondur
25
0
Suppose there was a wormhole connecting two points in space A and B.
Your ship enters at A.
Half way through journey inside the tunnel, your ship suddenly makes a sharp right turn and penetrates the wall of the tunnel and leaves the wormhole -failing to complete the full journey to point B
Where would your ship end up?
Outside the universe, another part of the universe, or the void, whatever this may be?
Interestingly, when your ship exits through the wall of the wormhole tunnel, and it does end up in another part of the universe, would it just appear out of nowhere?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #2
Gondur said:
Suppose there was a wormhole connecting two points in space A and B.
Your ship enters at A.
Half way through journey inside the tunnel, your ship suddenly makes a sharp right turn and penetrates the wall of the tunnel and leaves the wormhole -failing to complete the full journey to point B
Where would your ship end up?
Outside the universe, another part of the universe, or the void, whatever this may be?
Interestingly, when your ship exits through the wall of the wormhole tunnel, and it does end up in another part of the universe, would it just appear out of nowhere?
I don't think there is anything such as a wall when going through a wormhole. It's not a passageway or corridor, physics would probably work differently. I think you would just end up leaving the wormhole and reach Point B. Space would curve around and send you back on your path.

These are my thoughts, I'm not sure about the scientific basis of wormholes. Anybody available to help?
 
  • #3
An inexperienced teen here, chipping in his 2 cents on the matter.

No idea on any numbers or figures I could put behind this kind of thing, but the most plausible thing is that either
A: The travel through the wormhole would be faster than your ship can 'make a sharp right turn'.
B: Forces inside of the wormhole would keep it moving towards the exit- your ship wouldn't be allowed to gain any acceleration any direction besides towards the exit.
C: The interior of a wormhole wouldn't rip. Why would it? That's similar to saying 'I'm going to run straight into space with this ship, and if I rip through the fabric of the universe, where would the ship be?' But maybe wormholes are different-

D:
If this was the case though- the situation you described, that is; I'd imagine you'd be stuck in some sort of limbo, unable to ever make it back to our spacetime. I'm not sure how the properties of such a plane would work, though.

Of course, this is all just a kid saying this, so take my word with a grain (heap) of salt. It's just what I think'd happen.
 
  • Like
Likes lekh2003
  • #4
Gondur said:
Half way through journey inside the tunnel, your ship suddenly makes a sharp right turn and penetrates the wall of the tunnel and leaves the wormhole

It can't. The wormhole doesn't have a "wall"; the common terminology that describes it as a "tunnel" is misleading, as are diagrams that show a wormhole as like a tunnel between two flat regions. It's not like a tunnel through the Earth. It's not like anything you can easily visualize.

If you are inside the wormhole and your ship changes direction, all that will happen is that it will come out of the other mouth of the wormhole in a different direction. (Unless it changes direction enough that it goes back out the same mouth that it came in.) Basically, inside the wormhole, every spatial direction leads outward through one of the two mouths; there are no "sideways" directions. I realize this is not how your intuition says "space" works; that's why I said a wormhole is not like anything you can easily visualize. But the math describing wormholes is quite clear, and it says what I just described.
 
  • Like
Likes Imager, ComplexVar89 and lekh2003
  • #5
And this is why I still use this forum.
 
  • Like
Likes lekh2003

1. What is a wormhole and how does it work?

A wormhole is a hypothetical tunnel-like structure in spacetime that connects two distant points in the universe. It is believed that wormholes can be created by the warping of spacetime caused by the extreme gravitational pull of black holes or the energy of a cosmic string. Theoretically, a ship can enter one end of the wormhole and come out the other end in a different location in the universe, potentially even in a different time.

2. What happens if a ship exits a wormhole prematurely?

If a ship exits a wormhole before it has reached the other end, it is likely that the ship will end up in a completely different location than intended. The exact location would depend on the specific characteristics of the wormhole and its exit point.

3. How can a ship exit a wormhole prematurely?

There are several possible reasons why a ship might exit a wormhole prematurely. It could be due to a malfunction in the ship's navigation system, an error in the calculations used to enter the wormhole, or even a disturbance caused by the extreme gravitational forces inside the wormhole.

4. Is it possible for a ship to exit a wormhole prematurely and end up back at its starting point?

Yes, it is possible for a ship to exit a wormhole prematurely and end up back at its starting point. This would require the wormhole to have a closed loop structure, where the entrance and exit points are the same. However, this is just a theoretical possibility and has not been observed or proven in real life.

5. What are the potential dangers of exiting a wormhole prematurely?

The potential dangers of exiting a wormhole prematurely include ending up in a distant and potentially hostile location, being unable to return to the original location, and potentially damaging the ship due to the extreme conditions inside the wormhole. It is important for ships to carefully plan and execute their journey through a wormhole to minimize the risk of exiting prematurely.

Similar threads

  • Sci-Fi Writing and World Building
Replies
12
Views
4K
  • Advanced Physics Homework Help
Replies
13
Views
1K
  • Sci-Fi Writing and World Building
Replies
15
Views
1K
  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
Replies
12
Views
4K
  • Other Physics Topics
Replies
9
Views
1K
Writing: Input Wanted Captain's choices on colony ships
  • Sci-Fi Writing and World Building
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • Sci-Fi Writing and World Building
3
Replies
90
Views
6K
  • Sci-Fi Writing and World Building
4
Replies
118
Views
5K
  • Special and General Relativity
Replies
2
Views
843
  • Special and General Relativity
Replies
2
Views
2K
Back
Top