More Dark Star Candidates Found in JWST Data

September 30, 2025 • by Staff Writer

A growing list of dark star candidates could help explain why some early galaxies were so big, so early in the universe.

The background shows the blackness of space, dotted with colorful stars and galaxies. In a pullout box at the top left, an arrow points to a fuzzy red blob shaped like a jelly bean. A label reads JADES-GS-z14-0.

This galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0 (shown in the pullout), is one of the most distant galaxies ever observed using the JWST. According to this latest study, it may harbor a supermassive dark star at its core. Although the signal is noisy, there appears to be a “smoking gun” signature of a dark star in the spectra from this object, namely light absorption at a wavelength of 1640 Angstrom. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), P. Cargile (CfA).


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