In Brief

Weird Science: Wormholes Make the Best Time Machines

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Wormhole
A model of 'folded' space-time illustrates how a wormhole bridge might form with at least two mouths that are connected to a single throat or tube. (Image credit: edobric | Shutterstock)

If you're a science fiction nut like everyone here at SPACE.com, you most likely have already had an encounter or two with time travel. From Marty McFly in "Back to the Future" to Doctor's Who's TARDIS and that crazy sun-slingshot thing they do in "Star Trek," there are literally a million ways to travel through time in science fiction. But astrophysicist Eric W. Davis says time travel could one day be real. All you need is a wormhole. To quote Marty, "This is heavy."

The story comes from our sister site LiveScience, which caught up with Davis in a recent interview. He's an astrophysicist at the EarthTech International Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin and published a paper in July on the aspects of wormhole time travel in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' journal.

"You can go into the future or into the past using traversable wormholes," Davis told LiveScience.  But it won't be easy: "It would take a Herculean effort to turn a wormhole into a time machine. It's going to be tough enough to pull off a wormhole." So sadly, no DeLoreans that time travel at 88 mph yet. You can read the full time travel interview at Livescience here.

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.