Kip Thorne - The Science of Interstellar

quantum foam, 134–135, 224–225

quantum gravity data

what these data are, 224–225

encoded in the singularities inside a black hole, 225–227

extracting them from a singularity, 170, 223, 266

quantum gravity, see laws of physics, quantum gravity laws

quantum physics, see laws of physics, quantum laws

quasars:

discovery of, 88–89

explanation by black-hole accretion disk, 89–91

jets powered by whirling magnetic fields, 91–92

revolutions that upend scientific truth, 24, 202

rocket technology:

twenty-first century, 68, 117

far future, 117–120

science:

the power of, for humans, 275

the importance of understanding science, its power and its limitations, 275

truth, educated guess, and speculation in, 30–34

science fiction:

contrast with science fantasy, 62

respectability in, 246–247

singularities:

what a singularity is, 225–226

as the domain of quantum gravity, 49, 225–227

naked singularities, 59, 227–230

inside black holes, see singularities inside black holes

singularities inside black holes:

the chaotic, lethal BKL singularity, 230–231, 246

the infalling (mass-inflation) singularity, 232–233, 246, 248–249

the outflying (shock) singularity, 233–234, 246, 248–249

“gentleness” of infalling and outflying singularities, 234, 246–247

Cooper sandwiched between singularities in Interstellar , 248–249

slingshots, see gravitational slingshots

solar system, 20–21, 21 , 71, 71

solving gravity, see Professor Brand’s equation

space colonies, 273–275, 290

spacetime:

unification (mixing) of space and time, 185–186

causal structure of, 297–298

warping of, see warped spacetime

space warps, see warped spacetime

stars:

nearest, 115–117

Tau Ceti, 115–117

Proxima Centauri, 21, 116–117, 120

torn apart by black holes, 93–94, 148–149

Sun, 20–21, 20

space warped around, 37–39, 47, 32 , 39

tidal forces of, 43

temperature of, 94

gravitational force of, and planetary orbits, 194–195, 202

particles flying out from, 24–25

superstring theory, 30, 187–188, 187 , 284

tendex lines, 41–44, 41 , 151–153, 151 , 152 , 153 , 164–165, 165 , 209–211, 209 , 210 , 214–216, 214 , 215 ; see also tidal gravity

tesseract:

as a hypercube in a space with four dimensions, 253, 253

as a means of transport through the bulk, 34, 193, 196–197, 200–201

in the novel A Wrinkle in Time , 289

tesseract, in Interstellar :

saves Cooper from singularity, 251, 252

entrance to, 252

transports Cooper to vicinity of Murph’s bedroom, 254–255

Cooper sees six views into bedroom, 256–257

Cooper sends signals backward in time to Murph, via the tesseract, 263–266, 270–271, 297–298

see also tesseract, Nolan’s complexified

tesseract, Nolan’s complexified

images from Interstellar , 257 , 261 , 265

Christopher Nolan’s hand drawing of, 259

Kip’s explanation of, 256–261, 265–266, 270–271

sending messages backward in bedroom time, 263–266, 270–271, 297–298

Thorne, Kip, see Kip Thorne

tidal bores, 166, 167

tidal field, see tendex lines; tidal gravity

tidal forces, see tendex lines; tidal gravity

tidal gravity:

instruments to measure, 209–211, 210

Newton’s viewpoint, 42–43

and straightest paths through warped spacetime, 41, 44, 278

tendex viewpoint, 41–44

and ocean tides on Earth, 42–43

and gravitational waves, 151–153

on Jupiter’s moon Io, 168

on Miller’s planet, 58, 163–166, 284, 292

tears stars apart, 93–94, 148–149, 280

squeezes accretion disk, 98

and design of the Endurance , 180–181

pries Endurance apart from Mann’s planet, 237–238, 238

and gravitational anomalies, 213–216

near singularities, 231–233, 251

see also tendex lines

tides:

on Earth’s oceans, 42–43

on Miller’s planet, 163, 166

time travel:

what we know about, without a bulk, 266–269

with a bulk, 269

in Interstellar :

Christopher Nolan’s rule set for, 263

messaging Murph backward in time, 263–266, 265 , 270–271, 270 , 289–290, 297–298, 298

time warps, see time warps, Einstein’s law of; warped spacetime

time warps, Einstein’s law of, 35–37, 291

applications of, 47, 139, 162, 267

toxins, 108

truth, educated guess, and speculation in science, 30–34

tsunamis:

on Earth, 167 , 274–275

on Miller’s planet, 166

universe, our:

overview of, 17–26, 277

laws that control it, 27–34; see also laws of physics

as a brane in a higher-dimensional bulk, 32, 187–188; see also branes

Viking spacecraft, 38–39

volcano’s rim, see critical orbit around a black hole

Vulcan, 203, 285

warped side of the universe, 154, 283; see also big-bang origin of our universe; black holes; geometrodynamics; gravitational waves; wormholes

warped spacetime, 35–41

space warps, 37–41

time warps, 35–37

underlies Einstein’s relativistic laws, 28–29

and tidal gravity, 41

whirling space, 48-49; see also black holes, whirl of space near

warping begets warping, 46–47

around black hole, precise depiction, 49

white dwarfs, 21–22

wormhole in Interstellar :

visual appearance, 145

visualization of, by Double Negative visual-effects team, 138–145

gravitational pull and time warping, 138–139

handles for its shape: radius, length, and lensing width, 139–140

influence of handles on its appearance, 140–144

gravitational lensing by, 142–145

discovering the wormhole by gravitational waves: my extrapolation, 146–151

bulk fields hold it open, in my interpretation, 218–219

see also wormholes

wormholes:

how they got their name, 127

mouths, 133

some history of research on, 128–129, 130–132

almost certainly do not occur naturally, 133–135

perhaps forbidden by laws of physics, 136–137

problem of holding them open, 129–130, 218, 218

problem of making them artificially, 135–136

in Contact (the movie), 130–132

Flamm’s wormhole (Einstein-Rosen bridge), 128–130

as seen from the bulk, 128 , 129 , 131

visualizing via gravitational lensing, 138–144

visual appearance, 132–133, 133 , 141 , 143 , 145

microscopic wormholes (quantum foam), 134–135, 134 , 224–225, 225 , 287

see also wormhole in Interstellar

The Future of Spacetime (with Stephen W. Hawking, Igor Novikov, Timothy Ferris, Alan Lightman, and Richard H. Price)

Black Holes & Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy

Black Holes: The Membrane Paradigm (with Richard H. Price and Douglas A. MacDonald)

Gravitation (with Charles W. Misner and John Archibald Wheeler)