5 Interstellar science questions that will make you dig deeper into the Nolan classic

Kip Thorne, who was a scientific consultant on Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014), gave us a book, The Science of Interstellar, to understand the things that went in there. That film is a cinematic visual, but there's too much to take in for an average human brain. No matter how many times we see the movie, new questions are likely to come to mind.

Let's just say we need to be someone like Uatu, aka the Watcher from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), to truly understand the secrets of the universe, and Nolan's film for that matter. So, we thought of some questions that we could answer.

From a difference between wormholes and black holes to why Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) wasn't spaghettified like John Krasinski's Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), we have tried to include some interesting questions to ponder over, and of course we have answered them. So buckle up, "this little maneuver's gonna cost us"....just about five minutes!

These answers will help you understand Interstellar better

How are wormholes different from black holes?

This is one of the most complex topics that is still easy to understand in contrast to many other concepts in the film. So think of them like this. A wormhole is like a tunnel that'll lead you from one end to another. Black holes don't have an end but a point called a singularity.

Essentially, there's a light at the end of the tunnel called a wormhole, but there's none when we talk about black holes. Kip Thorne made it really simple for us to understand the difference between wormholes and black holes in The Science of Interstellar's Figure 4.5. Do take a look at it if you ever get the time.

Why was the data from inside the black hole necessary?

It is crystal clear in the film that Earth is inhabitable by the very beginning of Interstellar. They needed quantum data, which can only be collected while inside the black hole, which TARS does, collecting it from the singularity and transmitting it to Cooper while he is in the tesseract (explained in the next section).

What is a tesseract and who made it?

For the love of fifth-dimensional beings, stop thinking about that blue cube from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The tesseract is simply a physical manifestation of time created by ultra-advanced beings (basically their future selves). TARS explains it the best in the film when he says that these beings

"Constructed this three-dimensional space inside of their five-dimensional reality to allow you to understand it."

We saw Murph getting close to the end of her life but what about Amelia?

Anne Hathaway doesn't age! Just kidding. Interstellar sees Hathaway's Dr. Amelia Brand on Edmund's Planet. She probably has aged like Murph in it. Last we saw, she didn't appear to age a bit, but then it is likely that she just landed there on Edmund's planet.

But elderly Murph (Ellen Burstyn) tells us, "She’s out there, setting up camp." She hints that Amelia might be preparing for a "long nap." And she might be executing 'Plan B' in a strange galaxy.

But there are different theories about it, one of which says 14 years might have passed for Brand by the film's end.

Comment byu/JustMy2woCents from discussion ininterstellar

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Why wasn't Cooper spaghettified near Gargantua?

This is likely the biggest mystery in Interstellar: why Cooper wasn't spaghettified as he fell into the black hole. To understand this, one needs to understand this concept called the Anti-DeSitter (AdS) Warp.

That's too deep a topic, but know it like this. We are in a DeSitter space, which is associated with the expansion of our universe. In an Anti-DeSitter Warp, it would be the opposite, and the universe would contract, which is basically what happens according to our knowledge. Considering this, Cooper could've met the same fate as John Krasinski's Mr. Fantastic. But he didn't, and Kip Thorne explains why.

"In my interpretation of the movie, he has to cross the AdS layer. The tesseract must either protect him from the layer’s enormous tidal forces or clear the AdS layer away from his path. Otherwise he’ll be spaghettified.

Bonus: Something that Interstellar fans may not like, Cooper dies

We are not talking about the theory that TikToker called StarkVerse. We are talking about while he is in a black hole. It is possible that Cooper, while falling in that dark void, simply perished, and whatever we saw after that were simply his thoughts.

In short, he became one with the consciousness. There's a book known as Bardo Thodol, also known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, explaining what happens after death. While it is more about wrathful and peaceful deities, it does explain the consciousness in simple words. If that's true, maybe we should stop dreaming about Interstellar 2.