Home / Science / Cosmic Hum Hints at Dark Star Origins of Supermassive Black Holes
Cosmic Hum Hints at Dark Star Origins of Supermassive Black Holes
22 Aug
Summary
- Gravitational waves may reveal birth of first supermassive black holes.
- Hypothetical 'dark stars' could have formed massive black hole seeds.
- Pulsar timing arrays detect spacetime ripples from the early universe.
Scientists are exploring a persistent cosmic hum of gravitational waves as a potential echo from the universe's earliest supermassive black holes. Detected in 2023 using pulsar timing arrays, these spacetime ripples may hold secrets from around 13 billion years ago. The leading theory suggests these waves originated from hypothetical 'dark stars'.
These 'dark stars' are theorized to have been powered by dark matter annihilation, not nuclear fusion. They could have accreted vast amounts of matter, eventually collapsing to form massive black hole seeds. This process would provide a head start for supermassive black hole growth, addressing observations by the James Webb Space Telescope of black holes forming sooner than previously thought possible.
The modeling by researchers indicates that remnants of supermassive dark stars could significantly contribute to the detected gravitational wave background. Further improvements in pulsar timing array measurements are needed to confirm if dark stars indeed played a dominant role in seeding the universe's largest black holes.
