I'm Also Curious To Know If Any Other Stars Are Particularly Attached To Humans And Their Conceptions,

I'm so instantly drawing to other stars, I cannot forget that this body isn't exactly keen on that. That is to say, I have got to stop glancing at the Sun. Yes, it is amusing that it is a massive star, a day star. No, that doesn't mean I can stare directly at it.

𝐼 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒...

── Call me 'S'. Twenties. Sidereal/Starkin. ﹒⊹﹆ֹ

── Ey/Em/Eirs. Transmasc. Black. Queer. ﹒⊹﹆ֹ

── Young (low billions) Milky Way star, ever present witness, lover of the Moon and earthlings. ﹒⊹﹆ֹ

...𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑟

Boundaries ꔛ✶ Directory ꔛ✶ Wish Making ﹒⊹﹆ֹ

𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑒, 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑟. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝐼'𝑙𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑖𝑛 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑, 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟.

And while I'm here, you should definitely send me your wishes in my ask box. I am a star, I am to be wished upon!!

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??"

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

The one about wishing stars...

My identity as a star is built upon the foundation of the scientific understanding of what a star is, and how it behaves "tangibly". That is to say, when this mortal flesh disperses, my body's form will not be in the cartoonish depiction of a five point star (⭐), rather, I'll become a large ball of gas and other minor elements, burning billions of miles away from here. I am aware that identities founded on the slippery slope of science can be tricky, but I think I find a happy medium.

With that said, I also embrace the human conceptions of what a star is, what they use us for. In particular, I relish in the idea of being a wishing star. In fact, I'm so endeared by the notion, my ask box is actually intended for it. I accept wishes :] And then I work my stuff, to the fullest extent of my power!

NGC 6357, Celestial Cathedral

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.

Me

I can see the light seeping from the pores of your body. In the reflection of your eyes, I see my own light, flittering and dancing from behind my teeth, daring to blind you should I open my mouth and speak our unspoken truth.

I see you, celestial creature. I know you, divine thing. I love you, cosmic wonder.