A wormhole is essentially a theoretical tunnel that connects 2 different points in space-time. Both ends of the tunnel can either connect points in the same universe (intra-universe) or different universes (inter-universe). If you were to actually pass through a wormhole it would take much less time to get from point A to point B than going through normal space.

Wormholes became a prominent theory because they present themselves as solutions to the equations of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Ludwig Flamm first discovered the idea of wormholes and found the connections to black holes in 1916. Then in 1935, Einstein and Nathan Rosen further explored they theory in a paper that was meant to explain fundamental particles in terms of spacetime tunnels that are connected by electric force. A man by the name of John Wheeler gave the name “wormhole” to Einstein and Rosen’s idea and it stuck.

A way to imagine this theoretical idea would be to imagine a flat piece of paper that has a point A and a point B. It would take a while to get between these points if you traveled across the flat paper. However, if you folded the paper in half and traveled between the space of the 2 halves you would get there much faster. This is how a wormhole would work in space.

History Channel Covers Wormholes