Dark star (dark matter)

A dark star is a special kind of star that scientists think might have existed in the very early days of the universe. These stars are special because they might be made partly of something called dark matter. Dark matter is a mysterious kind of material that we cannot see, but we know it must be there because of how things move in space.

Dark stars are just a theory right now, meaning scientists haven't actually seen one yet. But if they did exist, they would have been very different from the stars we know today. They might have been much bigger and lived for a very long time. They could have helped shape the universe before normal stars could appear.

Scientists are still studying dark stars to learn more about the early universe and the hidden material that makes up most of the matter we cannot see. These stars could help us understand how everything in space began and how it has changed over time.

Properties

Dark stars would be made mostly of normal matter, like the stars we see today. But they would also contain a lot of special invisible matter called dark matter. This dark matter would create heat by clashing with itself. This heat would stop the star from becoming small and dense like normal stars. Because of this, normal chemical reactions that make stars shine would not start.

In this idea, a dark star would be a huge cloud of gas, much bigger than our Sun. Its surface would be very hot. Over time, these stars might grow very large before they run out of dark matter and collapse. If such stars still exist today, we might find them by looking for special kinds of energy they give off.

Possible dark star candidates

In April 2023, scientists looked at four faraway objects found by the James Webb Space Telescope. They thought three of these objects, named JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0, and JADES-GS-z11-0, might be a special kind of star called a dark star. These dark stars could have existed in the early universe and were powered by a mysterious substance called dark matter. The scientists think these objects were very heavy, between 500,000 and 1 million times the weight of our Sun. They were also very bright, shining as brightly as billions of Suns. They might have been much bigger than any star we see today, maybe up to 10,000 times the size of the Sun.