James Webb Telescope Discovers Mysterious ‘Dark Star’ Fueled by Dark Matter, New Study Reveals

Astronomers have exciting news: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope might have spotted something called “dark stars.” These are not your typical stars fueled by nuclear fusion. Instead, they may be ancient entities made mainly of hydrogen and helium, appearing shortly after the Big Bang.

A recent study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that in the universe’s early days, there might have been supermassive dark stars. These stars could be powered by dark matter—a mysterious substance believed to make up about 25% of the universe. Although we can’t see dark matter directly, scientists know it’s there because of how it affects visible matter.

Colgate University astrophysicist Cosmin Ilie explains that supermassive dark stars are giant, fluffy clouds, supported against gravity by tiny amounts of dark matter that self-annihilate inside them. This unique feature may help explain why JWST is discovering bright galaxies in the most distant parts of the universe.

One fascinating aspect of these dark stars is their potential to form supermassive black holes, which are linked to extremely bright galactic centers known as quasars. Historical context helps here: the idea of dark stars is not entirely new. It originated in the late 2000s, suggesting they could arise from a type of dark matter particle known as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. This concept proposes that these particles annihilate themselves, generating heat that presents itself as radiant stars.

By around 300 million years after the Big Bang, the conditions were just right for dark stars to emerge. Katherine Freese, an astrophysicist at The University of Texas at Austin, says they’ve found supermassive dark star candidates in JWST images, the earliest of which dates back to just after the Big Bang.

In 2023, Freese and her team made strides in identifying several candidates using the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). They’ve since analyzed more data from the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), looking at the very early universe. Their latest findings show four potential dark star candidates, including one of the second most distant objects ever seen.

Ilie and his colleagues believe they might have found a telltale sign of a dark star, specifically a “1640 Angstrom absorption dip” in the spectrum of one candidate. This kind of detailed study helps scientists inch closer to understanding dark matter—a complex puzzle in today’s astronomy.

While there’s still a long road ahead before confirming the existence of these ancient dark stars, the current findings bring us closer to uncovering the mysteries surrounding dark matter. As exploration continues in this fascinating field, we gain deeper insights into the universe’s origins and what it may mean for future discoveries.

For more information on dark matter and its intriguing properties, check resources like NASA’s astrophysics page.

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