Black Hole Star – The Star That Shouldn't Exist

Summary

Black hole stars, possibly the largest ever to exist, were celestial giants with black holes at their cores, formed during the early universe's dense conditions. These stars, with up to 10 million solar masses, grew rapidly, fueled by dark matter halos, until their immense gravity compressed their cores into black holes. Despite the violent energy of their accretion disks, they could not sustain the balance against their own mass, eventually leading to their destruction and the birth of supermassive black holes, potentially solving the mystery of how such black holes could exist so early in the universe.

Takeaways

• 🌌 Black hole stars were possibly the largest stars to ever exist, with sizes exceeding any current stars and those that could form in the future.
• 🔥 They were exceptionally bright, outshining entire galaxies due to their immense size and energy output.
• 🌀 Inside these colossal stars, a black hole resided, consuming matter at an unprecedented rate, challenging our understanding of star formation and growth.
• 🚀 Black hole stars could only have formed during a brief period in the early universe, offering a potential solution to a significant cosmological mystery.
• 🌟 The most massive known stars today are around 300 solar masses, whereas a black hole star could have up to 10 million solar masses of nearly pure hydrogen.
• 🌍 Visually, a black hole star would be over 800,000 times wider than our Sun and 380 times larger than the current largest known star.
• 🌪 Stars typically form from the accumulation of matter in dense spots within gigantic gas clouds, but black hole stars were born in a unique environment with dark matter halos playing a crucial role.
• 🌌 The early universe's density and heat allowed for the creation of stars with masses as large as 100 million Suns, setting the stage for black hole stars.
• 💥 Despite the immense pressure and heat, black hole stars could not be destroyed by a supernova, leading to the formation of a black hole at their core.
• 🌀 The black hole within a black hole star would create an accretion disk, with matter orbiting at nearly the speed of light, generating intense heat and radiation.
• 🌌 The existence of black hole stars could explain the presence of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, which are too large to have formed in the time available since the Big Bang.
• 🔭 Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope may provide evidence of these early universe phenomena, potentially confirming the existence of black hole stars.

Q & A

What were black hole stars and why were they considered the largest stars to ever exist?

Black hole stars were hypothetically the largest stars that ever existed, characterized by their immense size and brightness, which exceeded that of galaxies. They were larger than any star today or that could exist in the future, with masses up to 10 million solar masses of nearly pure hydrogen.

What makes black hole stars special in terms of their internal structure?

Black hole stars are special because deep inside they were occupied by a cosmic parasite—an endlessly hungry black hole. This black hole at their core grew rapidly by devouring billions of tons of matter per second.

How did the formation of black hole stars differ from the formation of regular stars?

Black hole stars were only possible during a short window of time in the early Universe. They formed in environments dominated by dark matter halos, which concentrated gigantic amounts of hydrogen gas, allowing the stars to grow to unbelievable proportions that regular stars cannot reach.

What is the role of dark matter in the formation of black hole stars?

Dark matter played a crucial role in the formation of black hole stars by forming massive structures called dark matter halos. These halos had such strong gravitational pull that they concentrated vast amounts of hydrogen gas, which became the birthplaces of the first stars and galaxies, including black hole stars.

How did the growth of black hole stars differ from that of normal stars?

Unlike normal stars, which are limited in growth by the radiation energy released from nuclear fusion that blows away the surrounding gas cloud, black hole stars continued to grow due to the massive and dense gas clouds in the early universe that piled on more gas even after their birth.

What is the process that leads to the formation of a black hole within a star?

The process involves the star's core getting crushed by gravity into a black hole. Normally, this would lead to a supernova, but in the case of black hole stars, the star survives its own death, forming a black hole at its heart.

How does the black hole within a black hole star grow?

The black hole grows by consuming matter from the star. The enormous pressure surrounding the black hole pushes matter directly into it, overcoming restrictions on consumption speed, allowing the black hole to grow rapidly.

What is an accretion disk and how does it relate to black holes?

An accretion disk is a structure formed when matter is drawn towards a black hole and begins orbiting it in smaller and faster circles. It is characterized by extremely high temperatures due to friction and collisions between particles, which emit intense radiation.

How do black hole stars contribute to the understanding of supermassive black holes?

If black hole stars existed, they could explain the existence of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, which are too large to have formed in the time since the Big Bang through conventional means. The black holes from black hole stars could have been the seeds for these supermassive black holes.

What role might the James Webb Space Telescope play in the study of black hole stars?

The James Webb Space Telescope could potentially verify the past existence of black hole stars by exploring the farthest reaches of the Universe, looking back in time to the early universe where these stars might have existed.

What was the ultimate fate of black hole stars according to the script?

The ultimate fate of black hole stars was destruction. The accretion disk within became too powerful, and the star became too stretched, leading to the black hole at its core destroying its host and blowing it apart, leaving behind only a star carcass.