Earlier this month, the world was given its first-ever image of a black hole.
Now, further research into these structures has suggested that instead of killing you as previously thought, black holes could be safely traveled through and actually be portals to other galaxies, Business Insider reports.
This was demonstrated by scientists at UMass Dartmouth and Georgia Gwinnett Colleges. They used computer simulations to show that black holes have the potential to be portals to hyperspace travel - in particular, a certain type of black hole known as a rotating black hole.
Pictured below is Katie Bouman, a 29-year-old computer scientist, who created the algorithm which led to the first picture of a black hole being taken:
Needless to say, this is all in theory. We've not even sent humans to Mars yet - let alone got anywhere near propelling a person through a black hole. This research simply suggests that could be possible.
According to the report published in Business Insider, at the center of every black hole is a singularity. In layman's terms, this is a point of infinite destiny. In the not so distant past, scientists thought that all singularities were the same, however, a second singularity known as a "mass inflation singularity" was discovered in the early 90s.
These singularities can be found in rotating black holes and, although they have a strong gravitational pull like traditional black holes, this pull is finite, which means you could theoretically survive traveling through them.
Lior Burko, from Georgia Gwinnett College, said:
"You would feel a slight increase in temperature, but it would not be a dramatic increase. It's just that you don't have enough time to respond to the very strong forces. It would just go through you too quickly."
This takes us to the question of what would happen if someone survived a trip through a black hole. Burko speculates that they could lead to a remote part of our galaxy. But alternatively, it could be another galaxy altogether.
Talk about sci-fi coming to life!
