什么是暗星?

什么是暗星?

Black stars may be the most influential celestial bodies in the universe that no one knows for sure ever existed.

暗星可能是宇宙中最具影響力的天體，沒有人確切知道它是否存在過。

In fact, they may be the elder stars of the cosmos, twinkling long before stars — at least as we know them now — showed up.

事實(shí)上，它們可能是宇宙中較老的恒星，早在恒星出現(xiàn)之前就閃爍著——至少我們現(xiàn)在知道它們——很久了。

Freese suggests dark stars are actually the seeds of the supermassive black holes that lurk in the heart of every galaxy. After all, even time-bending, light-hoovering regions of space have to grow from something. And that something may be a dark star.

Freese認(rèn)為暗恒星實(shí)際上是潛伏在每個(gè)星系中心的超大質(zhì)量黑洞的種子。畢竟，即使是時(shí)間彎曲、光線閃爍的空間區(qū)域也必須從某種東西中生長出來，可能是一顆暗星。

Dark stars wouldn't run on nuclear fusion, but rather dark matter. (Photo: nienora/Shutterstock)

The stars we see today all abide by the same general rule of nuclear fusion. The sheer mass of a star means it's always in a state of collapsing on itself. But that kind of constant pressure on its core also produces energy that radiates outward. The result is a perfect balance of inward pull and outward radiation.

我們今天看到的所有恒星都遵循相同的核聚變一般規(guī)律。恒星的絕對質(zhì)量意味著它總是處于自身坍縮的狀態(tài)。但是這種對其核心的恒定壓力也會(huì)產(chǎn)生向外輻射的能量。其結(jié)果是內(nèi)拉力和外輻射達(dá)到了完美的平衡。

Dark stars, on the other hand, do things a little differently.

另一方面，暗星的作用有點(diǎn)不同。

Even as a microscopic ingredient in a star's makeup, dark matter could keep a body huffing and puffing for a billion years thanks to a unique process called dark matter annihilation.

即使是作為恒星構(gòu)成中的一種微觀成分，由于一種被稱為暗物質(zhì)湮滅的獨(dú)特過程，暗物質(zhì)也能讓一個(gè)身體持續(xù)不斷地膨脹10億年。

Essentially, dark matter gives a dark star its superpowers — it could expand and radiate energy without having to rely on that delicate dance known as nuclear fusion. That would also unburden a dark star from its core, allowing it to sprawl outward and, shine much brighter and bigger.

從本質(zhì)上講，暗物質(zhì)賦予了一顆暗星超能力——它可以膨脹并輻射能量，而不需要依賴被稱為核聚變的微妙舞蹈。這也將從它的核心釋放出一顆暗星，讓它向外擴(kuò)張，發(fā)出的光更亮、更大。

A full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope — the most powerful space observatory ever created. (Photo: Chris Gunn/NASA)

Scheduled for a March 2021 launch, the space-borne eye will be "the biggest, most powerful telescope ever to be put in space."

“天眼”計(jì)劃于2021年3月發(fā)射，它將是“有史以來送入太空的體型最大、功能最強(qiáng)大的望遠(yuǎn)鏡”。

While astronomers are rightly excited about the prospect of countless new planet discoveries, the telescope may also finally catch a glimpse of that most elusive and ancient celestial body known as a dark star.

雖然天文學(xué)家對無數(shù)顆新行星的發(fā)現(xiàn)前景感到興奮不已，但這臺(tái)望遠(yuǎn)鏡或許最終也能瞥見最難以捉摸、最古老的天體——暗星。

"If a dark star of a million solar masses were found [by James Webb] from very early on, it's pretty clear that such an object would end up as a big black hole," Freese says. "Then these could merge together to make supermassive black holes. A very reasonable scenario!"

弗雷斯說:“如果(詹姆斯·韋伯)在很早的時(shí)候就發(fā)現(xiàn)了一顆質(zhì)量是太陽質(zhì)量100萬倍的暗恒星，那么很明顯，這樣一個(gè)物體最終會(huì)變成一個(gè)大黑洞。然后它們會(huì)融合在一起形成超大質(zhì)量的黑洞。一個(gè)非常合理的方案!”