The James Webb Space Telescope may have made an intriguing discovery by potentially detecting the presence of theoretical “dark stars” in the distant past, as suggested by a recent study.
Astrophysicists involved in the study propose that these dark stars could be powered by colliding dark matter, an enigmatic and hypothetical form of matter estimated to comprise approximately 25 percent of the universe.
Co-author Katherine Freese, a physics professor at the University of Texas, expressed the significance of the findings, stating, “Discovering a new type of star is pretty interesting all by itself, but discovering it’s dark matter that’s powering this—that would be huge. And believe it or not, one dark star has enough light to compete with an entire galaxy of stars.”
Dark stars could potentially exceed the size of stars like our sun, which derive their energy from fusion processes occurring within atoms. While the existence of dark matter and dark stars remains hypothetical, Freese explains that if confirmed, they could help resolve inconsistencies between theories of galaxy formation and recent observations made by the James Webb telescope.
The three identified dark stars, named JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0, and JADES-GS-z11-0, were first observed in December 2022 and were found to have existed between 320 and 400 million years after the Big Bang, making them among the earliest objects ever detected.
The research team aims to continue studying these three objects using the James Webb telescope, which was launched in 2021 and has provided unprecedented insights into planets, stars, galaxies, and other celestial phenomena.
The concept of dark stars was initially proposed by Freese and her colleagues in 2008. Their latest study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, further supports their predictions and offers the possibility of identifying more dark stars in the near future.
Co-author Cosmin Ilie from New York state’s Colgate University expressed confidence, stating, “We predicted back in 2012 that supermassive dark stars could be observed with (the James Webb Space Telescope). I am confident we will soon identify many more.”