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Anything that
can be cut can also be sewn. It is mathematically possible to take two black
hole geometries, and sew them together along their "tears". This
gives rise to wormhole solutions to Einstein's equations, in which two
otherwise separate "universes" are connected by a throat, or
tunnel, as shown in the top figure above. Such wormholes could also connect
different regions of the same universe, as in the bottom picture. In
principle this would enable us to take shortcuts to distant parts of the
Universe just like they do in Star Trek. The problem is that within
Einstein's theory such wormholes are very unstable. The throats tend to
collapse in a much shorter time than it would take to get through to the
other side, so that traversing such wormholes is in practice impossible.
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