Under that talkative and friendly aspect hides one of the world’s greatest authorities in the world of astrophysics. He has obtained the Einstein Medal (2009) and the Lilienfeld Prize (1996), two of the greatest possible merits in his field, however, on a mundane level he is best known for being a scientific advisor to various works of science fiction. For example, Carl Sagan himself worked with him on his novel Contact, which would later be brought to the big screen starring Jodie Foster.
Now you have just reviewed that all the science that appears in Christopher Nolan’s latest film, Interstellar, is correct and adheres to the physical laws that we know so far.
In the film directed by Christopher Nolan, which opens on November 7, the destruction of the Earth leads humans to explore new worlds to prevent humanity from becoming extinct. To travel quickly, although “probably impossible according to the laws of physics,” notes Thorne, at Interstellar they resort to wormholes . These stellar “shortcuts” could be crucial in the future to travel to remote places in our universe, but when will we make it out of the Solar System? Can we really travel through these wormholes? What physical discoveries await us in the coming decades? We talked about this and much more with Kip Thorne.
Very Interesting: Interstellar proposes an apocalyptic world in which man will have to migrate to other planets and galaxies to survive. Science fiction or a matter of time?
Kip Thorne: I cover this subject in great detail in my new book, The Science of Interstellar . Such a fate for our world is conceivable, scientifically speaking, but highly unlikely.
Very Interesting: When do you think humans will get out of the solar system?
Kip Thorne: If you wanted to go to the nearest habitable planet (maybe one that orbits the star Tau Ceti, about 12 light years from Earth) it’s like being halfway around the world, like going from New York to Perth. . So far what we have achieved is to go to the Moon. It’s like having traveled three inches! That gives you an idea of how difficult interstellar travel is. I believe that we humans will make such trips one day, but not in the 21st century or the 22nd century.
Very Interesting: How would you explain wormholes in a simple way?
Kip Thorne: Wormholes are hypothetical shortcuts through a higher dimension to far away places in our universe. They are probably impossible according to the laws of physics, but we are not completely sure. However, even though it would be extremely difficult to carry out interstellar travel using rockets, at Interstellar we resort to wormholes to get out of the Solar System.
Very Interesting: Can these wormholes be used as time travel machines?
Kip Thorne: Probably not, but we don’t know for sure. In my book I explain how we might try to use wormholes as time machines and why it will probably fail.
Very Interesting: You advised Carl Sagan in his day to create his famous novel “Contact”. Do you think we will be able to contact intelligent beings from other planets?
Kip Thorne: Yes, I’m pretty sure we will. Although I don’t know when exactly. Finding such signals should be a much higher priority for science than it is today.
Very Interesting: Recently the news broke: “mathematically there are no black holes.” However, at the astrophysical level they have been widely demonstrated … So?
Kip Thorne: I have not carefully studied the scientific paper that announced this result, but some colleagues who have analyzed the report have reported that there are errors in it.
Very Interesting: Stephen Hawking is very critical about the existence of God. What do you think about it?
Kip Thorne: I agree with Stephen about God in his traditional ways, I am very skeptical about it. But in a sense we could understand the physical laws that control the universe and govern its evolution as if they were God.
Very Interesting: Finally, what are you currently working on?
Kip Thorne: I am trying to understand the non-linear dynamic behavior of warped spacetime. The deformation of space and time behave in a similar way to a storm in the middle of the ocean. We are beginning to get answers, theoretically, thanks to supercomputing simulations of the collision of black holes. And soon we will get answers from the observations of gravitational waves from the LIGO and VIRGO projects.
Very Interesting: What physical discoveries await us in the coming decades?
Kip Thorne: Perhaps the most important are the laws of quantum gravity, which control the birth of the universe, the singularities inside black holes, as well as the possibility of time travel. The search for these laws is a central theme in the movie Interstellar, where they are known as “quantum data.” His discovery is the key to the extraordinary ending of Christopher Nolan’s magnificent film.
