'James Webb finds dark stars': Cosmic clues to the secrets of early universe revealed

Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh

Dark stars

Astrophysicists propose dark stars fueled by dark matter annihilation, emitting light billions of times brighter than our Sun and rewriting cosmic history.

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Early universe

Dark stars may have formed in dense dark matter “minihaloes,” growing to massive sizes—some up to a million times the mass of the Sun.

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JWST clues

The James Webb Space Telescope identified three possible dark star candidates—JADES-GS-z13-0, JADES-GS-z12-0, and JADES-GS-z11-0—with unique light properties.

Unique light

Unlike galaxies, these objects emit light consistent with supermassive stars rather than typical stellar clumps, hinting at dark star characteristics.

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Dark matter link

Astrophysicist Katherine Freese suggests dark stars could provide direct observations of dark matter interactions, solving one of physics’ biggest mysteries.

Credit: NASA

Black hole origins

Dark stars may explain the presence of supermassive black holes in the early universe if they collapsed into black holes at the end of their lifetimes.

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Cosmic questions

Dark stars could radically change our understanding of dark matter, which makes up 85% of the universe’s mass but has evaded direct detection.

Transformative discovery

If confirmed, dark stars would redefine stellar formation theories and offer insights into the universe’s infancy and its enigmatic dark matter.

Future studies

Ongoing JWST observations could unlock new secrets about dark stars, illuminating the most hidden regions of the cosmos and reshaping our understanding of space.