Theory Posits Early Stars Powered By Dark Matter 115
ethericalzen writes "A BBC article highlights a theory that the first stars may have been powered by dark matter. A group of US scientists published a paper in Physical Review Letters speculating that, unlike the stars of today, which are powered by nuclear fusion, early stars might have been powered by the abundant dark matter crowding the universe after the Big Bang. The theory suggests that these stars would have collided and destroyed one another before nuclear fusion had a chance take hold." The BBC perhaps overstates the certainty with which the dark-matter theory is held, and doesn't mention that the postulated properties of such particles are completely speculative.
Re:Overstates? (Score:5, Informative)
> alternatives were that there's more interstellar dust than we thought...
That doesn't work because you can't get the observed distribution with baryonic matter.
Re:Your tax dollars funded this, but no article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Light from nothing? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Overstates? (Score:2, Informative)
Re: Very Very Dark Matter (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Very Very Dark Matter (Score:5, Informative)
Dark Matter was just one hypothesis among many for why galaxy rotation wasn't as expected until we started getting the very precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation a couple of years ago. That made it clear that the matter mass of the early universe was about 80% non-baryonic, reacting to gravity but not light pressure. The percentage and distribution was predicted well by a dark matter theory, and it has explained some later observations as well.
Re:Overstates? (Score:3, Informative)
And that, of course, is for a very good reason: the electrons aren't in orbit around the nucleus in the same way that the Earth is in orbit around the Sun. If they were, electro-magnetic attraction would pull them into direct contact almost instantly.