James Webb telescope reveals 3 possible ‘dark stars’ — galaxy-sized objects powered by invisible dark matter

The James Webb Area Telescope (JWST) could have discovered proof of a wierd and elusive sort of star that solely existed within the very early universe, when invisible darkish matter was one of many solely out there gasoline sources.

New analysis means that three of the earliest objects recognized as galaxies by the JWST aren’t galaxies in any respect, however moderately “darkish stars” — immense, ultrabright hypothetical objects which are powered by darkish matter moderately than nuclear fusion. If the speculation is appropriate, then this might lastly assist scientists higher perceive darkish matter, the universe’s most mysterious element.

Associated: James Webb telescope discovers the 4 oldest galaxies within the universe

“This stuff are atomic matter that’s powered by darkish matter, and one supermassive darkish star may very well be as vibrant as a complete galaxy containing regular fusion-powered stars,” astrophysicist Katherine Freese, an astrophysicist on the College of Texas at Austin and lead creator of a brand new research printed July 11 within the journal Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences, advised Reside Science.

Explosive annihilation

A colorful map of stars with blue and green light indicating the presence of invisible dark matter

A map of fuel and darkish matter in a merging galaxy, with blue and inexperienced gentle indicating a gravitationally huge coronary heart of darkish matter on the galaxy’s heart. (Picture credit score: NASA Goddard)

Based on principle, darkish stars are monumental compared to “unusual” stars that exist within the universe right now, like the solar. Darkish stars are hypothesized to have widths a whole bunch of occasions higher than the solar’s. These stars, composed largely of hydrogen and a few helium, existed in protogalaxies when the universe contained largely these two parts; heavier parts hadn’t but been cast by nuclear fusion in stars. Nevertheless, about one thousandth of a darkish star’s mass can be product of a secret gasoline supply — darkish matter.

Darkish matter, which is all however invisible as a result of it would not work together with gentle, makes up an estimated 85% of the matter within the universe. Principle means that when two darkish matter particles collide, they could “annihilate” one another, turning their mixed mass right into a bathe of energetic gamma-ray radiation.

“If darkish matter is self-annihilating, then the annihilation merchandise might get caught inside this hydrogen cloud,” that makes up darkish stars, Freese stated. “And what which means is you are taking all the power that was once within the mass of the darkish matter and dumping it into this cloud,” Feese stated.

Freese added that whereas “on a regular basis” stars depend upon excessive temperatures, darkish matter annihilation might happen at any temperature.

“Darkish matter annihilation would not care concerning the temperature,” Freese stated. “So you may have darkish matter annihilation all through all the [width] of the darkish star. And the floor temperature is comparatively cool. Due to that, there isn’t any ionizing photons or different stuff coming off stopping the accretion of extra matter.”

In distinction, when regular stars have acquired sufficient mass to start out nuclear fusion, the radiation that they pump out pushes away the fuel envelope that surrounds them, stopping them from accreting extra matter and thus rising additional.

Because of this, whereas darkish stars could begin out with a mass about the identical because the solar, the objects can accrete an increasing number of matter, rising to be 1,000,000 occasions as huge because the solar, and a billion occasions as vibrant, Freese added.

Darkish star, or historic galaxy?

Given their large dimension, darkish stars would seem as extra spread-out objects moderately than as point-like objects, like modern-day stars. That is how three historic objects detected by the JWST — namedJADES-GS-z13–0, JADES-GS-z12–0, and JADES-GS-z11–0 — might have been misidentified as galaxies, in accordance with the brand new analysis. These candidate darkish stars date to between 320 million and to 420 million years after the Large Bang.

However, the darkish matter annihilation course of cannot proceed without end. Darkish stars sit within the dark-matter-rich facilities of protogalaxies, which merge collectively repeatedly to kind correct galaxies, and ultimately, this strikes darkish stars away from their darkish matter gasoline.

“As darkish stars get displaced from the dark-matter-rich heart, the darkish stars begin collapsing,” Freese defined. “This may set off fusion within the smaller ones, creating unusual fusion-powered stars [which are all created from collapsing clouds of gas]. The larger ones will collapse instantly into black holes.”

Because of this darkish stars do not exist within the universe right now, Freese added. Nevertheless, it’s tough to pinpoint precisely when within the 13.8-billion-year historical past of the universe that darkish stars would have ceased to be.

Confirming the existence of darkish stars by way of these JWST observations can be large, however Freese identified that she and the crew aren’t fairly there but. This affirmation would require both these candidate darkish stars for for much longer to construct a extra full image of their gentle output, or ready for magnified observations that higher reveal the sunshine emissions of those objects, which might enable scientists to establish whether or not the objects have pure hydrogen and helium compositions, as can be anticipated from darkish stars.

“The darkish star concept has been hanging in there for a few years, and it will be extraordinarily thrilling to me to have this confirmed appropriate,” Freese concluded.

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