Strange star system may hold first evidence of an ultra-rare ‘dark matter star

Astronomers lengthy thought {that a} peculiar star system noticed by the European Area Company’s Gaia satellite tv for pc was a easy case of a star orbiting a black gap. However now, two astronomers are difficult that declare, discovering that the proof suggests one thing far stranger: probably, a never-before-seen kind of star product of invisible darkish matter. Their analysis, which has but to be peer-reviewed, was revealed April 18 on the preprint server arXiv.

The system itself consists of a sunlike star and, effectively, one thing else. The star weighs rather less than the solar (0.93 photo voltaic mass) and has roughly the identical chemical abundance as our star. Its mysterious companion is way more large — round 11 photo voltaic lots. The objects orbit one another at a distance of 1.4 astronomical models, concerning the distance at which Mars orbits the solar, making an entire orbit each 188 days.