Webb Telescope Captures Tantalizing Evidence for Mysterious ‘Dark Stars’

Three objects were identified by the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) in December 2022. NASA/ESA/Handout via Reuters

WASHINGTON—Scientists for the past 15 years have been looking for evidence of a type of star only hypothesized but never observed—one powered not by the fusion of atoms like the sun and other ordinary stars but by mysterious stuff called dark matter.

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope’s ability to peer back to the dawn of the universe, the first good candidates to be “dark stars” have been identified.