2023-05-30 08:00:02
About a peculiar star system discovered by the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite, researchers have been intriguing for years. The object was long thought to be a star and a black hole in a gravitational dance. We may have discovered the first “dark star” ever detected, according to a new theory, which could fundamentally alter the way we think about the universe.
The elusive and enigmatic dark matter, which we have not been able to detect directly, is believed to make up about 85% of the mass in the universe. It is the unicorn of astrophysics because it has no interactions with light or ordinary matter. The unicorn could be dancing a gravitational waltz right under our very telescopic noses in this scenario, perched in a corner of the Milky Way.
The new theory, which has not yet undergone peer review, was published on the scientific server arXiv on April 18. It establishes that the intriguing celestial pairing of a Sun-like star and its dark matter companion is not a black hole.
The known star in this dynamical pair has a mass slightly less than one solar mass and is chemically similar to our king star. Instead, her dance partner is 1 coma 4 astronomical units away and weighs eleven solar masses. Every 188 days it ends its orbital dance.
The nature of this companion is the question that convulses the cosmos.
the invisible star
Some cosmologists have proposed that this dark matter could actually be a new type of clump-forming boson, adding even more mystery to the situation. Boson stars are among the smallest. Bosonic stars are almost as compact as black holes, but unlike them, they lack their renowned horizon, according to Nicolás Sanchis-Gual, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Aveiro, Instituto Superior Técnico and the University of Lisbon. of activities. He claims that a black hole would form if several of these dim stars came together.
The problem with proving the existence of bosonic stars is that they would be completely undetectable. Only their gravitational effects, like the one the researchers think they have discovered in the Gaia data, can be used to detect them.
However, the possible discovery of a bosonic star remains only speculation until backed by indisputable proof.
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