NGC 6357, Celestial Cathedral

Dive into the Lagoon Nebula © Hubble

𝑫𝒂𝒘𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚, 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕...

... Stars exist in the wider expanse of the cosmos, often surrounded by our kin. We are birthed from nebulas, and congregate in constellations and orbits. And yes, we're often light-years away from each other, but you must understand that when you're a star, that's no different from sitting in a huddle on a carpet with your dearest friends.

... So, I surround myself with stars. Because when I'm with them, I feel the most at home. It's why I want to meet and befriend more star kin :} I yearn for the security and light of others like me.

WHAT IS A DARK MATTER STAR??

Blog#490

Welcome back,

Saturday, March 22nd, 2025.

In a first, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) might have glimpsed a rare type of star that astronomers aren’t even sure exists. These stellar objects, called dark stars, might have been fueled not by nuclear fusion but by the self-annihilation of dark matter—the invisible stuff that is thought to make up about 85 percent of the matter in the universe.

Scientists will need more evidence to be able to confirm the candidates seen by JWST, but if these dark stars are real, the finding could change our story of how the first stars formed.

Contrary to their name, dark stars could have glowed a billion times more luminously than the sun and grown to a million times its mass. Dark stars have never been definitively observed, but cosmological simulations suggest that they should have formed soon after the big bang from clouds of pure hydrogen and helium that collapsed at the centers of protogalaxies rich in dark matter.

In July 2023 researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that at least three far-off objects observed by JWST and previously identified as galaxies could, in fact, each be a single, supermassive dark star. “If you find a new kind of star, that’s huge,” says study co-author Katherine Freese, an astrophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin.

The researchers can’t yet prove that the objects are dark stars—only that their characteristics are consistent with their being either dark stars or galaxies populated by regular fusion-powered stars. JWST’s technology is sufficient to do that job, however, says study co-author Cosmin Ilie, an astrophysicist at Colgate University.

All researchers need is more observation time. “We hope we are going to find one of these dark stars with the Webb within its lifetime,” Ilie says.

There are two possibilities for how the first stars in the universe formed. The conventional wisdom is that these early stars were “Population III” stars. Such stars would have been powered by nuclear fusion, like stars today, but they would have had very little to no metal in them—in astronomy, that means elements heavier than helium—because those elements had not yet formed in the early universe.

There is another possibility, though. In 2008 Freese and some of her colleagues proposed that the universe’s first stars could have been powered by dark matter. Dark matter is a mysterious form of matter that does not interact with electromagnetic forces; scientists know it exists only because of its gravitational effects, and they don’t know what it’s made of.

In the early universe, dark stars could have formed from the collapse of helium and hydrogen clouds made in the big bang. If dark matter particles are also their own antiparticles, as many dark matter theories posit, then within these collapsing clouds, those particles would have collided with one another and self-annihilated.

The collision would have kicked off a chain of particle decay that ended with the production of photons, electron-positron pairs and neutrinos. Only the neutrinos would have really left the cloud because they barely interact with matter. The other particles would have hit the hydrogen and helium and transferred their energy to that matter, which would have heated up the cloud and fueled the star’s formation and continued growth.

These stars would have formed at the center of “minihaloes,” which were early protogalaxies that existed 200 million years after the big bang, before the advent of elements heavier than helium and hydrogen. These minihaloes consisted almost entirely of dark matter, making conditions within them ripe to power dark stars. This high concentration of dark matter is why dark stars could form only in the early universe, Freese says.

Originally published on https://www.scientificamerican.com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, March 26th, 2025)

"WHAT IS THE OLDEST KNOWN GALAXY??"

The Lovers

Kaja Horvat, 2024

I'm so deeply in love with the moon. And I don't mean that in a "oh she's so pretty" way. I'm wholeheartedly in love with her. And she knows, this is no blushing secret. She's deeply admired, and truthfully, she's pretty graceful about it.

I'm not particularly polyamorous, but I will say, the fact that she's beloved by so many (the other stars, sol, mortal creatures) brings me great joy. Her majesty is very likely unanimously adored by any and everything that can perceive her. I think it is only natural and correct that she, effervescent and splendorous, is so cherished.

Me

I'm glad you were able to find some commonalities in your experience! It's part of why I coined/started using Sidereal in this context, there are so many ways to be a star or celestial or astro, etc.

For me, I know I will inevitably be one with space again, amongst other stars. But for now, I'm just doing my best with the body I have.

Sending love and light ꔛ✶!!

𝑰𝒏 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑻𝒐 𝑬𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉...

... You know, I've found it hard to find true disdain for this planet. Of course, I feel that same melancholic homesickness most non-earthly entities do when left to reflect too long on not being home. But, I actually do love it here, for all of the troubles and triumphs I've lived.

... I'm a Sidereal. A star fallen to Earth, whose soul and spirit mixed with the debris of this planet, thus anchoring my body to this planet. My job for now is for experience change, to change my form, and find singularity. In many ways, I'd imagine it isn't unlike stellar evolution. It is in our nature to change, then die. In that way, we're quite like human earthlings.

... So, I try to take it in stride. It's also helped by the fact that I am a Milky Way star, and specifically one near to Earth (likely only just scratching the double digits in billions light years). Stars are passive observers. I am an observer. Light takes a while to travel, yes, but of what little I can concretely remember, I've always found the evolution of human beings deeply fascinating. So getting to be part of that to a small extent is warming, I feel. It's nice.

ꔛ✶. leave a wish .✶ꔛ

Maybe you could try blackout curtains for the voidkin part? I'm not sure what it's like being part of a void, but my guess is that it's all encompassing, so having the ability to be in complete darkness sounds like it might be good :)

I would also say, try and find other starkins to relate to. Many of us are used to being surrounded by each other on all sides, in all directions. Ik talking to other stars makes me happy at least.

I'm afraid I do not have anything to supplement your other needs, especially pertaining to shifting. But I hope you find what you're looking for!

hello!! any good tips for starkins and voidkins? i already have some star themed stuff and think of getting black converse with stars this summer :3 but have no idea what to do about the void part

also there's a thing, I don't know if it's a fantom shift (?) or not, im VERY new to all these terms, sorry :'( im feeling like im something "occupying" this human body, and sometimes it randomly starts to feel like it's too small, so tiny I can explode and get out of it any second, and its starting to itch and feel very uncomfortable :'

I think the privilege of at least knowing I'm old is that living in this mortal body doesn't feel like I'm simply waiting things out. I'm here with purpose, and I get to take my time.

Stars observe, and given my proximity to earth back when I was out in the infinity, you can imagine how much time I spent musing over it. And now I'm HERE, which is bonkers.

And I will spend billions of years after this in space, burning and watching, and I will be happy to do so, I'm sure. But I may never get to experience this again, this experience of humanity I've so enjoyed watching. Who knows if I will ever be human presenting again?

I'll enjoy it, I think. The light and mass in my soul isn't going anywhere. I'll stay here, and learn a while.

divinity’s light and warmth flows through my human form in rivers and waves, forming puddles in my joints. lakes and oceans in my ribcage flowing around my beating heart, illuminating me from within.