A team of astrophysicists has actually found 3 possible “dark stars” using the James Webb Space Telescope. These theoretical bodies, believed to be powered by dark matter particles, are much larger and brighter than our sun. If confirmed, they might significantly illuminate our understanding of dark matter, one of the most considerable unsolved concerns in physics. Their existence could reconcile the discrepancy in between the existing basic cosmology design and the observation of large galaxies early in the universe.
Stars powered with dark matter still need showing but could reveal hints about the nature of one of the universes terrific mysteries.
Stars beam brightly out of the darkness of area thanks to combination, atoms combining together and launching energy. But what if theres another method to power a star?
A team of three astrophysicists– Katherine Freese at The University of Texas at Austin, in cooperation with Cosmin Ilie and Jillian Paulin 23 at Colgate University– analyzed images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and discovered three brilliant things that might be “dark stars,” theoretical objects much bigger and brighter than our sun, powered by particles of dark matter wiping out. If validated, dark stars could expose the nature of dark matter, one of the deepest unsolved problems in all of physics.
Now, a team consisting of Katherine Freese at The University of Texas at Austin speculate they might really be “dark stars,” theoretical objects much larger and brighter than our sun, powered by particles of dark matter obliterating. The recognition of supermassive dark stars would open up the possibility of finding out about the dark matter based on their observed residential or commercial properties.
And believe it or not, one dark star has enough light to complete with a whole galaxy of stars.”
As the density increased, the dark matter particles would progressively wipe out, adding more and more heat, which would avoid the gas from collapsing all the method down to a dense adequate core to support fusion as in a normal star. With enough dark matter, dark stars might grow to be several million times the mass of our sun and up to 10 billion times as intense as the sun.
” Discovering a brand-new kind of star is pretty fascinating all by itself, but finding its dark matter thats powering this– that would be big,” stated Freese, director of the Weinberg Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Jeff and Gail Kodosky Endowed Chair in Physics at UT Austin.
These 3 items (JADES-GS-z11-0, jades-gs-z13-0, and jades-gs-z12-0) were originally recognized as galaxies in December 2022 by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Now, a group including Katherine Freese at The University of Texas at Austin speculate they may really be “dark stars,” theoretical items much larger and brighter than our sun, powered by particles of dark matter annihilating. Credit: NASA/ESA
When they collide, these particles annihilate themselves, depositing heat into collapsing clouds of hydrogen and converting them into vibrantly shining dark stars. The recognition of supermassive dark stars would open up the possibility of discovering about the dark matter based on their observed residential or commercial properties.
The research study was released on July 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Follow-up observations from JWST of the items spectroscopic residential or commercial properties– consisting of dips or excess of light intensity in certain frequency bands– might help verify whether these candidate objects are certainly dark stars.
Verifying the existence of dark stars might likewise help resolve a problem developed by JWST: There appear to be too lots of big galaxies too early in deep space to fit the forecasts of the standard design of cosmology.
” Its most likely that something within the basic design needs tuning, since proposing something completely brand-new, as we did, is always less likely,” Freese said. “But if some of these objects that look like early galaxies are in fact dark stars, the simulations of galaxy development concur better with observations.”
The three candidate dark stars (JADES-GS-z12-0, jades-gs-z11-0, and jades-gs-z13-0) were initially identified as galaxies in December 2022 by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Utilizing spectroscopic analysis, the JADES team confirmed the things were observed at times varying from about 320 million to 400 million years after the Big Bang, making them a few of the earliest things ever seen.
The other is that they are dark stars. And believe it or not, one dark star has enough light to contend with an entire galaxy of stars.”
Dark stars might theoretically grow to be a number of million times the mass of our sun and as much as 10 billion times as brilliant as the sun.
” We anticipated back in 2012 that supermassive dark stars could be observed with JWST,” stated Ilie, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Colgate University. “As displayed in our recently published PNAS article, we currently discovered 3 supermassive dark star prospects when examining the JWST data for the four high redshift JADES things spectroscopically confirmed by Curtis-Lake et al, and I am confident we will quickly recognize much more.”
The concept for dark stars stemmed in a series of discussions between Freese and Doug Spolyar, at the time a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. They questioned: What does dark matter do to the first stars to form in the universe?
Together, Freese, Spolyar and Gondolo developed a design that goes something like this: At the centers of early protogalaxies, there would be really thick clumps of dark matter, in addition to clouds of hydrogen and helium gas. As the gas cooled, it would collapse and pull in dark matter in addition to it. As the density increased, the dark matter particles would significantly wipe out, including more and more heat, which would prevent the gas from collapsing all the method down to a thick enough core to support blend as in a normal star. Instead, it would continue to gather more gas and dark matter, ending up being big, puffy, and much brighter than normal stars. Unlike ordinary stars, the power source would be uniformly expanded, rather than concentrated in the core. With enough dark matter, dark stars might grow to be several million times the mass of our sun and as much as 10 billion times as bright as the sun.
Recommendation: “Supermassive Dark Star prospects seen by JWST” by Cosmin Ilie, Jillian Paulin and Katherine Freese, 11 July 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.DOI: 10.1073/ pnas.2305762120.
Financing for this research was offered by the U.S. Department of Energys Office of High Energy Physics program and the Vetenskapsradet (Swedish Research Council) at the Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics at Stockholm University.