Did dark stars contain dark matter instead of gas?

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Dark stars contained mostly regular gas with a significantly smaller ratio of dark matter.
Dark stars were formed right at the beginning of our Universe (200 million years after the Big Bang). These objects were so huge that they could reach 2000 astronomical units (AU). Our entire Solar System from one edge of the Kuiper belt to the other is around 200 AU across, so just try to imagine the size of these early stars. Dark stars were made of normal gases just like the stars we see today (hydrogen, helium etc.), but they were powered by dark matter. The ratio between normal matter and dark matter was significantly large: probably one dark matter particle for 1000-10.000 normal matter particles, but because of the enormous gravity, the star was powered by the interaction between dark matter particles falling and colliding in its core. These stars were therefore extremely cold, besides being enormous. Once the dark matter fuel was exhausted, there would have been nothing left to keep the regular matter of the star in place, so dark stars would collapse directly into a supermassive black hole. 

The existence of dark stars at the beginning of the Universe is still a theory, but it would explain how supermassive black holes formed, considering there isn’t enough time from the beginning of the Universe to our present day for supermassive black holes to have gotten this big. 
As a bonus info: VY Canis Majoris, one of the largest stars we know of today, is 6.6 to 6.7 AU across. Compare that to a dark star that could reach 2000 AU across. – Roman Alexander

(The question was originally asked by Kingsley Columba)

2 responses to “Did dark stars contain dark matter instead of gas?”

  1. Jude W Avatar

    Hi great reaading your post

    Like

    1. Roman Alexander Avatar

      Thank you so much! 🙂

      Like

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