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Did Dark Matter Power Early Stars?
Universe Today ^ | 1/02/09 | Nancy Atkinson

Posted on 01/02/2009 11:46:33 PM PST by LibWhacker

The first stars to light the early universe may have been powered by dark matter, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Michagan, Ann Arbor call these very first stars "Dark Stars," and propose that dark matter heating provided the energy for these stars instead of fusion. The researchers propose that with a high concentration of dark matter in the early Universe, the theoretical particles called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles(WIMPs), collected inside the first stars and annihilated themselves to produce a heat source to power the stars. "We studied the behavior of WIMPs in the first stars," said Katherine Freese and her team in their paper, "and found that they can radically alter the stellar evolution. The annihilation products of the dark matter inside the star can be trapped and deposit enough energy to heat the star and prevent it from further collapse."

The philosophy behind this research is that 95% of the mass in galaxies and clusters of galaxies is in the form of an unknown type matter, dark matter. The researchers say, "The first stars to form in the universe are a natural place to look for significant amounts of dark matter annihilation, because they form at the right place and the right time. They form at high redshifts, when the universe was still substantially denser than it is today, and at the high density centers of dark matter haloes."

The concentration of dark matter at that time would have been extremely high meaning that any ordinary stars would naturally contain large amounts of dark matter.

Dark stars would have been driven by the annihilation of dark matter particles releasing heat but only in stars larger than 400 solar masses. That turns out to be quite feasible since stars containing smaller amounts of dark matter would naturally grow as they swept up dark matter from nearby space.

The stars continued, and may still continue to be powered by dark matter annihilation as long as there is dark matter for fuel. When the dark matter runs out, they simply collapse to form black holes.

If they exist, Dark Stars should be able to be detected with future telescopes, and if found, would enable the study of WIMPs, and therefore be able to prove the existence of dark matter.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: dark; darkmatter; matter; power; stars; stringtheory
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1 posted on 01/02/2009 11:46:34 PM PST by LibWhacker
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To: SunkenCiv

/mark


2 posted on 01/03/2009 12:15:41 AM PST by KoRn
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To: LibWhacker

Does it really matter?


3 posted on 01/03/2009 12:16:51 AM PST by TomasUSMC ( FIGHT LIKE WW2, FINISH LIKE WW2. FIGHT LIKE NAM, FINISH LIKE NAM)
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To: LibWhacker

Dark matter can’t be detected in any way, but we know it exists because scientists tell us so, and they are never wrong.


4 posted on 01/03/2009 12:23:22 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: TomasUSMC
Does it really matter?

Discovery of energy related to certain subatomic physics a hundred years ago led to these things being deployed 65 years ago:

So yeah, I'd say it really matters.

5 posted on 01/03/2009 12:32:04 AM PST by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity...)
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To: LibWhacker

cool! so dark matter, creates dark stars, which collapse to create black holes, which suck in stars and space stuff around them? so do the xrays* emitted change back into dark matter? or do the black holes, when they ultimately evaporate, (per Hawkins) change back into dark matter?

*I’m not sure if it’s xrays I’m talking about (it can’t be light, right?), but every picture I see of a black hole has two streams, top and bottom, streaming out from the center of the hole as pictured here: http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/black_holes/encyclopedia.html


6 posted on 01/03/2009 1:46:43 AM PST by blueplum
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To: TomasUSMC
Does it really matter?

If you have not heard of dark matter, Dr. Zwicky came up with the theory in the 1930s. Some scientist think that dark matter could be God. The invisible God. It is present in everything in the universe. Some Scientist say dark matter is what hold the universe together.

And this is me thinking: when Einstein talks about changing the fabric of space and time, could this be the changing of dark matter? I am thinking along these lines: God is space and time. Space and time is present everywhere. Space and time can change too. For instance, time can slow down or speed up. BTW: what is the speed of dark :-) Dark matter could be another dimension of God or God in His complete form. The theory is that dark matter is present in everything in the universe. If dark matter is God, this is how God is present in you and I.

The Hubble telescope is showing an unknown matter clumping up at the edges of the Universe. Some Scientist say that this is dark matter and this is the beginning of time. The Hubble is showing the universe expanding in all four directions from the the Milky Way. The funny thing is, the stars are not expanding further away from each other. If all of the universe is expanding the stars would be getting further away from each other as they expand. Some Scientist say there is another force stronger then gravity that is holding the universe together. They think it is the dark matter that is doing this job.

Some Christians reject dark matter as being God because they feel that God is spirit not matter. I feel that I am not worthy to limit God's power. If God wants to be matter, God could be matter without any problem.

This is theory and I think worthy of debate

7 posted on 01/03/2009 2:15:45 AM PST by do the dhue (They've got us surrounded again. The poor bastards. - One of General Abram's men)
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To: metmom

ping


8 posted on 01/03/2009 2:16:58 AM PST by do the dhue (They've got us surrounded again. The poor bastards. - One of General Abram's men)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Dark matter can’t be detected in any way, but we know it exists because scientists tell us so, and they are never wrong.

No, the evidence for dark matter is strong, though not conclusive. Dark matter is matter that does not interact with electromagnetic fields (light) but has mass. It's presence is inferred from the observed large scale distribution and velocity of ordinary matter. If you have an explanation for these observations that is consistent with the laws of physics (i.e., consistent with observations on the scale of the solar system) book your reservations for Stockholm.

9 posted on 01/03/2009 2:29:46 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (The Democratic Party strongly supports full civil rights for Necro-Americans.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
the evidence for dark matter is strong, though not conclusive. Dark matter is matter that does not interact with electromagnetic fields (light) but has mass.

There are two basic forms of dark matter, baryonic and non-baryonic. Baryonic is ordinary matter which we, for one reason or another, simply cannot see, because, either, it isn't emitting light or it isn't reflecting light. The other form that you refer to is the non-baryonic form. My guess is that our theories of gravity are not quite right (on the large scale) and so we are wrongly inferring that the non-baryonic stuff exists.

10 posted on 01/03/2009 3:41:46 AM PST by ETL (Smoking gun evidence on ALL the ObamaRat-commie connections at my newly revised FR Home/About page)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
[non-baryonic] Dark matter is matter that does not interact with electromagnetic fields (light)...

IF it actually exists, it wouldn't interact with ANY form of electromagnetic radiation, not just the visible light portion of it. This would include: x-rays, gamma rays, ultra-violet, microwaves, etc, etc.

11 posted on 01/03/2009 3:46:57 AM PST by ETL (Smoking gun evidence on ALL the ObamaRat-commie connections at my newly revised FR Home/About page)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Same with anti matter?


12 posted on 01/03/2009 4:50:55 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: LibWhacker

What it means is that all the theories proposed to date don’t work and lead to absurdities, so they have to invent something that fixes the broken theories.
Time to start all over again trying to figure out the Universe.


13 posted on 01/03/2009 5:07:45 AM PST by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (liberalism = serious mental deficiency)
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To: blueplum

That isn’t an xray that is a jet of gas. If there is a large rotating body surrounded by gas there are two main features. Accretion disc and a Plasma jet. Accretion disc sort of looks like Saturn’s rings but extend all the way towards the black hole. The plasma jet is gas from the Accretion disc that some how gains energy from the spinning of the black hole. The jets can extend hundreds or thousands of light years and are extremely fast moving and hot.


14 posted on 01/03/2009 5:49:59 AM PST by ciwwaf
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To: do the dhue

“The Hubble is showing the universe expanding in all four directions from the the Milky Way. The funny thing is, the stars are not expanding further away from each other. If all of the universe is expanding the stars would be getting further away from each other as they expand.”

Distance and orbital dynamics.

Imagine the moon rotating around the earth in an exact circle. If you suddenly “Create space” in between the earth and the moon what would happen? One would imagine the earth and the moon would be orbiting further apart. Which they would for a while. What would actually happen is the orbit would become slight elongated and eventually back into the original circular orbit.

Distance is another factor. 1,000 light years compared to 1 million will be very differently scaled results.

As for god? Thats up to you and any one else.


15 posted on 01/03/2009 5:50:00 AM PST by ciwwaf
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To: do the dhue

Gen 1:1-3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.


16 posted on 01/03/2009 6:02:13 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: metmom

OK

that blows me theory away.


17 posted on 01/03/2009 6:05:34 AM PST by do the dhue (They've got us surrounded again. The poor bastards. - One of General Abram's men)
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To: ETL
My point was that there is observational evidence for “dark matter”. Anyone who can come up with a better explanation for the observations should book their reservations for Stockholm.

Dark Matter is not like “global warming”, a politicized weakly validated theory, rather it is a placeholder until a more comprehensive theory is conceived. If that ever happens.

18 posted on 01/03/2009 6:06:24 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (The Democratic Party strongly supports full civil rights for Necro-Americans.)
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To: Vaduz

Actually anti-matter does exist and has been created in colliders.


19 posted on 01/03/2009 6:11:02 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (Nemo me impune lacessit.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
My point was that there is observational evidence for “dark matter”. Anyone who can come up with a better explanation for the observations should book their reservations for Stockholm.

Alternative explanations for "dark matter" observations:

"A proposed alternative to physical dark matter particles has been to suppose that the observed inconsistencies are due to an incomplete understanding of gravitation. To explain the observations, the gravitational force has to become stronger than the Newtonian approximation at great distances or in weak fields. One of the proposed models is Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), which adjusts Newton's laws at small acceleration. However, constructing a relativistic MOND theory has been troublesome, and it is not clear how the theory can be reconciled with gravitational lensing measurements of the deflection of light around galaxies. The leading relativistic MOND theory, proposed by Jacob Bekenstein in 2004 is called TeVeS for Tensor-Vector-Scalar and solves many of the problems of earlier attempts. However, a study in August 2006 reported an observation of a pair of colliding galaxy clusters whose behavior, it was claimed, was not compatible with any current modified gravity theories.[25]

In 2007, John W. Moffatt proposed a theory of modified gravity (MOG) based on the Nonsymmetric Gravitational Theory (NGT) that claims to account for the behavior of colliding galaxies.[26]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter#Modifications_of_gravity

20 posted on 01/03/2009 6:18:41 AM PST by ETL (Smoking gun evidence on ALL the ObamaRat-commie connections at my newly revised FR Home/About page)
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