In physics, wormholes are a phenomena present within spacetime which acts like a shortcut. Spacetime itself is the combination of the concepts of both space and time viewed as a 2-dimensional flat plane. However, if folded over, a wormhole can be formed.

It earned its name through the analogy of a worm within an apple. It is said that if the worm traverses from the apple skin to the other end of the apple it then creates a shortcut. That is, instead of traveling around the fruit, it creates a tunnel that has a shorter distance.

The idea of a wormhole is to get from point A to point B in a shorter distance. It consists of a mouth, the both ends of the wormhole, and the throat, which is the passageway from one mouth to the other.

Types of wormholes:

Intra-universe wormholes

These wormholes connect one part of the universe to the other. This therefore creates a shortcut within the same universe.

Inter-universe wormholes

Also called as a Schwarzchild wormhole, this links one universe with another universe. This kind of wormhole allows travel to a parallel universe or even time traveling.

Traversable wormholes

These are the type of wormholes that enables an individual to pass from one end of the wormhole to the other. Serguei Krasnikov suggested that these types of wormholes can also be called as spacetime shortcuts.

There is also the Lorentzian wormhole as well as the Euclidean wormhole. These are the main types of wormholes and are studied in a different way. The Lorentzian wormhole is based on studies of general relativity and semiclassical gravity. The Euclidean wormhole, on the other hand, is based on particle physics.

Traveling through wormholes

Wormholes also suggest the idea of time traveling. According to the theories surrounding the physics of wormholes, this is due to relativistic time dilation. The clocks will appear the same if someone traveled in the wormhole but there will only be a difference in the year.

When traveling through a wormhole, speeds that are slower than the speed of light are used. That is because of the special relativity notion that a light beam travels faster than the individual traveling within the wormhole. Moreover, the speed to travel applies locally, ensuring that the speed of light is not exceeded.

The idea of wormholes intrigues many people, especially in the realms of science fiction. It was present in the film Contact starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey which was originally Carl Sagan's novel.

The same was for several episodes in Star Trek and in the 1990s series Sliders. But no matter how scientific it may be, they will always fascinate and boggle the minds of generations to come.