White Holes, Exploding Planets, and Aliens

“Are there white holes? Will planets explode? And are there aliens who will come and take over earth?”

Hello Jessica, and thank you for your questions. You obviously have a love for space and astronomy, which is super cool! Now, as far as your questions are concerned, we’ll take them in order.

White holes are the theoretical opposite of black holes. According to the theory, black holes draw light matter and energy into themselves, but do not allow anything to come out of them. We can observe black holes in certain regions of space. White holes are the inverse of black holes; light, energy, and matter can come out of them, but nothing can go in. We have not observed white holes, though it is possible that they may exist. We may just not have looked in the right place yet.

A black hole
Event Horizon Telescope, CC BY 4.0, via ESO

As for exploding planets—like those seen in Star Wars or other science fiction movies—it is unlikely that any planets we know of will explode in the near future. There will come a day when God will judge the universe with fire, but until then, most planets (especially earth) aren’t going to be destroyed (or renovated, depending on which eschatological position you follow).

An artist’s impression of planets in the Milky Way.
Image by NASA Hubble Space Telescope via Unsplash

It is unlikely that alien life, in the sense of Vulcans, Wookies, or other sentient species, exists. If they did exist, they could not be saved the way humans are, because salvation is only available to those descended from Adam. Spock and Chewbacca aren’t descended from Adam, so they could not be saved. It does not sound compatible with God’s character to have created an entire species of sentient life that could never experience his love and forgiveness. It is, however, possible that there is non-sentient life, like plants, animals, or bacteria, on some planets outside of earth. This isn’t very likely, but it does not violate any biblical position.

Do you have a question about the Bible? Ask your parents to help you submit your question today. We’d love to hear from you!