In the early days, and we’re talking very early on, not long after the Big Bang, the universe may have been littered with strange stellar monsters. These stars, which are large enough to swallow our entire solar system, would not be powered by nuclear fusion like normal stars, but instead by dark matter. Specifically, this mysterious particle of matter that self-annihilates to become fuel for so-called “dark stars.”
At least, that’s the idea.But when katherine freezeThe theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin first presented his theory at a conference in 2007, but it wasn’t particularly well received. “I overheard some graduate students calling us weirdos,” she says.
Anyway, the concept of a dark star sticks with Freeze. Over the past 16 years, she and her colleagues have deepened our understanding of these intriguing virtual objects. The problem was that finding evidence of them always seemed out of reach.
That’s because until recently, Freeze and her colleagues were reporting a possible sighting: a rare galaxy seen with a new telescope. “Perhaps some of these objects are not actually galaxies, but may actually be singular stars, i.e. dark stars,” team members say. Gillian PaulinAfter that, he went to Colgate University in New York.
Other astronomers still have doubts. “This is a very controversial idea,” he says. Cosmin Iriealso led the team at Colgate University. But if dark stars do exist, they provide more than just evidence of a specific type of dark matter. They could also help solve one of the biggest questions in cosmology: the mysterious origins of supermassive black holes that drive the evolution of galaxies.
Our universe is full of darkness…
