Wormholes are some of the universe’s strangest and most mind–boggling structures.

Now, scientists say one of these tunnels through space and time could be lurking in our own galaxy.

Just like a black hole, a wormhole is a structure where gravity is so strong that it bends the structure of spacetime itself.

The difference is that a wormhole bends spacetime to connect two different points, punching a hole directly through the surface of the universe.

These points could be light–years apart or even separated in time, but passing through the wormhole would let you travel between them in seconds, just like in the sci–fi film Interstellar.

Even though they are physically possible, scientists think any real wormhole would almost instantly collapse in on itself.

However, a group of physicists now claims that the mysterious substance known as dark matter could create wormholes – and even keep them open long enough to pass through.

If they are right, this means there could be a massive tunnel to another part of the universe hidden in plain sight at the core of the Milky Way.

Co–author Dr Saibal Ray, an astrophysicist from GLA University in India, says that you can think of a wormhole like a “type of tunnel.”

“A wormhole is nothing but a passage from one point to another,” says Dr Ray.

“It’s like a tunnel between two manhole covers; one acts as the entry point and the other as an exit point.”

Wormholes have two mouths connected by a tunnel known as a throat, which could theoretically span the entire length of the universe.

One mouth would be a black hole where matter and light are pulled in by gravity, and the other would be a so–called "white hole" where everything would emerge.

Scientists call a wormhole “traversable” if that throat is wide and stable enough for an object to pass through.

In theory, anything that fell in at one side would appear almost instantaneously at the other side.

However, not everyone is convinced by Dr Ray’s wormhole theories.

Dr Andreea Font, an astrophysicist and expert on the formation of the Milky Way from Liverpool John Moores University, says at 32,600 light–years across, the wormhole predicted by this theory would be far larger than anything that has been realistically modelled for wormholes.

Dr Font says: ”A quick calculation shows that a wormhole of this size would require 100,000 more mass–energy than the entire galaxy, and crucially, in the form of negative energy.

“Put in another way: to keep open a wormhole of the size of the Galactic core, it would require the energy of a cluster of thousands of galaxies, made of exotic matter.”

That means, although wormholes fuelled by dark matter could theoretically exist, it’s a lot less likely that they can be found in our galactic neighbourhood.

虫洞是宇宙中最奇特、最令人费解的结构之一。如今，科学家表示，这种穿越时空的隧道可能就潜伏在我们的银河系中。

与黑洞类似，虫洞也是一种引力极强、足以弯曲时空本身的结构。不同之处在于，虫洞将时空弯曲，连接两个不同的点，直接在宇宙表面“打”出一个洞。这两个点可能相距数光年，甚至相隔不同时间，但穿过虫洞，你就能在几秒内抵达另一端 —— 就像科幻电影《星际穿越》里那样。

尽管虫洞在物理上是可能的，但科学家认为，任何真实存在的虫洞几乎都会瞬间坍缩。不过，一组物理学家最近声称，一种名为“暗物质”的神秘物质可以创造出虫洞，甚至能让虫洞长时间保持开放，足以让物体通过。如果他们的说法正确，那就意味着银河系中心可能隐藏着一个通往宇宙另一端的巨大隧道，就在我们眼前，却未被察觉。

该研究的合著者、印度GLA大学天体物理学家赛巴尔·雷博士说，你可以把虫洞想象成“一种隧道”。“虫洞无非是从一个点到另一个点的通道，就像两个井盖之间的隧道——一个是入口，另一个是出口。”

虫洞有两个“口”，由一段称为“喉”的隧道连接。理论上，这段隧道可以跨越整个宇宙。其中一个口是黑洞，物质和光被引力吸入；另一个口是所谓的“白洞”，一切物质从中喷出。

如果虫洞的“喉”足够宽、足够稳定，能让物体通过，科学家就称之为“可穿越虫洞”。理论上，从一端掉入的任何东西，几乎会瞬间出现在另一端。

不过，也有不少专家不信。

利物浦约翰摩尔大学的天体物理学家、银河系形成研究专家安德烈娅·方特博士表示，根据这一理论预测的虫洞直径达3.26万光年，远大于此前任何现实模型中模拟过的虫洞尺寸。

方特博士指出：“快速计算就能发现，维持如此大的虫洞所需的质能，是整个银河系的10万倍以上 —— 而且关键在于，这些能量必须以负能量的形式存在。”

“换句话说，要维持一个银河系核心大小的虫洞保持开放，需要相当于数千个星系聚集在一起的奇异物质所产生的能量。”

这意味着，尽管由暗物质驱动的虫洞在理论上可能存在，但在我们的银河系附近找到它们的可能性要小得多。

(Translated by DeepSeek)