'Time may not stop inside...': New study suggests black holes could be portals, not dead ends

Our understanding of black holes, time, and dark energy may be on the verge of transformation. A groundbreaking study from the University of Sheffield challenges the long-held belief that black holes mark the final stop for matter and energy. Instead, researchers propose that these cosmic voids could be the precursors to white holes — hypothetical entities that eject rather than consume.

For decades, black holes have been considered one-way destinations. Anything crossing the event horizon — the invisible boundary where nothing, not even light, can escape — was thought to fall into a singularity, a point of infinite density where physics as we know it breaks down.

However, a new paper published in Physical Review Letters argues that singularities may not signal an end, but rather a transition. Grounded in quantum mechanics — the branch of physics governing microscopic particles — the study suggests that time doesn’t simply stop inside a black hole. Instead, it must continue in some form.

This challenges conventional thinking and breathes new life into the theory of white holes. Unlike black holes, which devour everything in their grasp, white holes theoretically push matter and energy outward. If the singularity within a black hole is not a dead end but a passage, then the other side of a black hole could be a white hole.

One of the study’s most striking implications is its potential link to dark energy, the mysterious force driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. The researchers suggest that time itself may be intertwined with dark energy, allowing it to persist beyond a black hole’s event horizon. As co-author Dr. Steffen Gielen explains: “In quantum mechanics, time as we understand it cannot end as systems perpetually change and evolve.” If this theory holds, black holes might not be cosmic endpoints, but bridges to something else — possibly even another universe.

White holes, however, remain purely theoretical. Unlike black holes, which we detect through their gravitational pull, no direct evidence for white holes exists. If they do emerge from black holes, where would they appear? Would they manifest elsewhere in the universe, in another dimension, or beyond our observable cosmos?

While these questions remain unanswered, the study challenges fundamental ideas about time and space. If black holes truly lead to white holes, they may not be the universe’s ultimate destroyers — but instead, its great recyclers.