Dec 15, 2025 05:38 PM
https://www.space.com/astronomy/dark-uni...y-universe
EXCERPTS: Scientists working with the James Webb Space Telescope discovered three unusual astronomical objects in early 2025, which may be examples of dark stars. The concept of dark stars has existed for some time and could alter scientists' understanding of how ordinary stars form. However, their name is somewhat misleading.
"Dark stars" is one of those unfortunate names that, on the surface, does not accurately describe the objects it represents. Dark stars are not exactly stars, and they are certainly not dark.
Still, the name captures the essence of this phenomenon. The "dark" in the name refers not to how bright these objects are, but to the process that makes them shine - driven by a mysterious substance called dark matter. The sheer size of these objects makes it difficult to classify them as stars.
[...] What happens when a dark star runs out of dark matter? It depends on the size of the dark star. For the lightest dark stars, the depletion of dark matter would mean gravity compresses the remaining hydrogen, igniting nuclear fusion. In this case, the dark star would eventually become an ordinary star, so some stars may have begun as dark stars.
Supermassive dark stars are even more intriguing. At the end of their lifespan, a dead supermassive dark star would collapse directly into a black hole. This black hole could start the formation of a supermassive black hole, like the kind astronomers observe at the centers of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
Dark stars might also explain how supermassive black holes formed in the early universe. They could shed light on some unique black holes observed by astronomers. For example, a black hole in the galaxy UHZ-1 has a mass approaching 10 million solar masses, and is very old - it formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. Traditional models struggle to explain how such massive black holes could form so quickly.
The idea of dark stars is not universally accepted. These dark star candidates might still turn out just to be unusual galaxies. Some astrophysicists argue that matter accretion - a process in which massive objects pull in surrounding matter - alone can produce massive stars, and that studies using observations from the James Webb telescope cannot distinguish between massive ordinary stars and less dense, cooler dark stars.
Researchers emphasize that they will need more observational data and theoretical advancements to solve this mystery... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Scientists working with the James Webb Space Telescope discovered three unusual astronomical objects in early 2025, which may be examples of dark stars. The concept of dark stars has existed for some time and could alter scientists' understanding of how ordinary stars form. However, their name is somewhat misleading.
"Dark stars" is one of those unfortunate names that, on the surface, does not accurately describe the objects it represents. Dark stars are not exactly stars, and they are certainly not dark.
Still, the name captures the essence of this phenomenon. The "dark" in the name refers not to how bright these objects are, but to the process that makes them shine - driven by a mysterious substance called dark matter. The sheer size of these objects makes it difficult to classify them as stars.
[...] What happens when a dark star runs out of dark matter? It depends on the size of the dark star. For the lightest dark stars, the depletion of dark matter would mean gravity compresses the remaining hydrogen, igniting nuclear fusion. In this case, the dark star would eventually become an ordinary star, so some stars may have begun as dark stars.
Supermassive dark stars are even more intriguing. At the end of their lifespan, a dead supermassive dark star would collapse directly into a black hole. This black hole could start the formation of a supermassive black hole, like the kind astronomers observe at the centers of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
Dark stars might also explain how supermassive black holes formed in the early universe. They could shed light on some unique black holes observed by astronomers. For example, a black hole in the galaxy UHZ-1 has a mass approaching 10 million solar masses, and is very old - it formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. Traditional models struggle to explain how such massive black holes could form so quickly.
The idea of dark stars is not universally accepted. These dark star candidates might still turn out just to be unusual galaxies. Some astrophysicists argue that matter accretion - a process in which massive objects pull in surrounding matter - alone can produce massive stars, and that studies using observations from the James Webb telescope cannot distinguish between massive ordinary stars and less dense, cooler dark stars.
Researchers emphasize that they will need more observational data and theoretical advancements to solve this mystery... (MORE - missing details)