Monday 16th December - 17:20 GMT
White Holes: Fact or Fantasy?
Can we go beyond the horizon of the universe?
Carlo Rovelli, Roger Penrose, Daniel Sudarsky, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Laura Mersini-Houghton
After 50 years of speculation, the existence of black holes is now widely accepted. But some physicists now argue for the existence of white holes, an object that throws matter out rather than sucking it in, claiming that they solve deep puzzles about the internal workings of black holes, dark matter and the origin of the Big Bang. But many argue such objects are fantasy. Critics say that white holes violate the second law of thermodynamics, and that there are multiple alternative theories to describe the inside of a black hole.
Are white holes a mathematical fantasy? Or like black holes might we come to see them as an essential element of the universe? Detached from observational and empirical evidence has contemporary cosmology become lost in theoretical imaginings, or is it in fact uncovering the very nature of the world?
Join best-selling author Carlo Rovelli, Nobel Prize-Winner Roger Penrose and leading theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton as they lock horns over the existence of white holes and the nature of reality. Hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn.
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This event is in partnership with Closer To Truth. Find out more about them here.
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