New Study Explores Mysterious Dark Stars in Early Universe
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) sheds light on the enigmatic dark stars that are believed to have existed in the early universe. These dark stars are estimated to be much larger than our Sun and are allegedly powered by the demolition of dark matter particles.
The study utilized spectroscopic analysis from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), specifically the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). By examining the data, astronomers hope to gain a better understanding of dark stars and the role of dark matter in the early universe.
The dark star candidates, named JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0, and JADES-GS-z11-0, are estimated to have existed approximately 320 to 400 million years after the Big Bang. Initially identified as potential galaxies, these candidates are believed to be around 1 million times more massive than our Sun and 1 billion times brighter.
Dr. Katherine Freese, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a co-author of the study, expressed excitement about the findings. “Discovering a new type of star is pretty interesting all by itself, but discovering it’s dark matter that’s powering this—that would be huge,” she said.
The existence of dark stars challenges current cosmological models based on recent observations by JWST, which suggest that early galaxies are bigger than expected. Follow-up observations by the JWST are necessary to confirm these findings and determine if these candidates are indeed dark stars.
“It’s more likely that something within the standard model needs tuning because proposing something entirely new, as we did, is always less probable,” explained Dr. Freese. “But if some of these objects that look like early galaxies are actually dark stars, the simulations of galaxy formation agree better with observations.”
The study of dark stars began more than 15 years ago with a conversation between Dr. Freese and Dr. Douglas Spolyar about the potential connection between dark matter and the first stars in the universe. Since then, multiple studies have been conducted to explore the possibility of dark stars.
“We predicted back in 2012 that supermassive dark stars could be observed with JWST,” said Dr. Cosmin Ilie, the lead author of the study. “As shown in our recently published PNAS article, we already found three supermassive dark star candidates when analyzing the JWST data. I am confident we will soon identify many more.”
The discovery of dark stars opens up new avenues of research and could potentially provide insights into the nature of dark matter and its role in the early universe. Scientists eagerly await future discoveries and advancements in our understanding of these mysterious cosmic phenomena.
In the words of Dr. Freese, “Keep doing science and keep looking up!”