The second-most distant object ever detected by the James Webb Telescope may be a "dark star" powered by dark matter rather than nuclear fusion.
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By examining wavelengths of light captured by the JWST Space Telescope, researchers have identified four candidate dark stars — with one seemingly possessing a "helium absorption signature" that is "burning," the researchers reported in a study published Sept. 30 in the journal PNAS.
The first hypothesis, put forward in 2007, is that dark stars are among some of the first stars – called Population III stars – to form after the Big Bang. According to the theory, they form when hydrogen and helium, which would have formed a black hole on their own, collapse and mix with dark matter. Dark stars are thought to be extremely massive and luminous, reaching a million times the mass of the sun and burning a billion times brighter.
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Finding dark stars could explain some of the very puzzling objects JWST has spotted in the early universe, such as giant supermassive black holes that formed incredibly quickly, Freese said. It would also provide insight into the nature of dark matter. Models of each candidate showed that all four could potentially be dark stars, perhaps even supermassive dark stars.
Dark stars remain controversial and their existence is not widely accepted. Although candidate dark stars are more massive than most supermassive protostars, their wavelength data must be compared for both types of stars to rule out supermassive protostars.
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Some researchers argue that because supermassive protostars don't live as long as dark stars, if many suitable signatures are detected, they are statistically more likely to be dark stars. This means that many more observations are needed to solve this mystery.
