The idea that spaceships might zip across the universe using black holes as a high-speed portal is a well-worn sci-fi cliche.

But the consensus among scientists of late is that black holes are so destructive, spaceships would be torn to subatomic bits if they tried such a thing.

Then again, maybe not. A new paper by University of Utah physicist Lior Burko, building on earlier work, raises the possibility that black holes may not annihilate everything, and that the potential for hyperspace travel is still open.

"One possibility is that black holes may allow us to travel to very remote places in the universe, or another universe entirely," said Burko in a telephone interview from his office in Salt Lake City. "It depends on the topology of the universe, which we do not know very well.... I'm not arguing it's a practical thing to do, but maybe in 1,000 years from now, maybe it would be simpler."

In Burko's scheme, black holes may be doorways to wormholes, theoretical constructs equivalent to tunnels, or shortcuts, between distant points of the universe, different points in time or even parallel universes.

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