Discussions between theoretical physicists can sound very other-worldly and often seem to buzz around highly abstract concepts and ideas. Many times, it even appears that the talk touches the limits of science-fiction. Cosmology, especially, has this flavour, and more so when the talk dwells on black holes, wormholes, time travel and multiple universes. Whether it is the catchy terminology or the fact that it is closely related to the question of origins, these concepts often trigger a lot of reading, writing and discussion.
The story behind Contact
American cosmologist, Nobel Laureate and ace story-teller Kip Thorne describes the following anecdote in his book, Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy. Once, he got a special request from his friend and astronomer Carl Sagan. The latter said that he was writing a novel in which his heroine had to take a shortcut through spacetime and move from Earth to the neighbourhood of a star Vega in just one hour. Vega is 26 light years away, so it will take even light, which is the fastest object in our universe, 26 years to cross this distance. Sagan had proposed a mode for rapid interstellar travel in which she enters a black hole and tunnels through to Vega. He was asking Thorne whether this was allowed by the laws of physics.
