Astronomy:Hawking star

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Short description: Theoretical type of star

A Hawking star is a theoretical type of star, where the star's core contains a very small, substellar, primordial black hole, and is partially or completely powered by energy from matter accreting into the black hole, rather than stellar fusion. It is named for Stephen Hawking, who proposed the existence of primordial black holes.[1][2][3]

The existence and frequency of Hawking stars would be a test for the existence of primordial black holes and their commonality, and test their candidacy as a form of dark matter.[2][3]

These stars are theorized to exist in the contemporary universe,[2][3] unlike a similar type of stars from the early universe, quasi-stars, where very large gas clouds directly collapse into black holes surrounded by star's envelope, also powered by black hole accretion.[4] Unlike the primordial quasi-stars, Hawking stars would be the size of contemporary stars, whereas quasi-stars would be incredibly massive.[2][3]

See also

  • Thorne–Żytkow object, a theoretical type of star formed by a neutron star merging with and becoming the core of another star
  • Supernova progenitor, a star that could collapse into a black hole after the end of its life
  • Stellar black hole, a black hole formed by the collapse of a star
  • Quasar, a star-like/point-like shining object, that is a galactic core black hole powered up by an accretion disk to an extreme degree

References

Further reading

  • Earl P. Bellinger, Matt E. Caplan, Taeho Ryu, Deepika Bollimpalli, Warrick H. Ball, Florian Kühnel, R. Farmer, S. E. de Mink, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard (13 December 2023). "Solar Evolution Models with a Central Black Hole". The Astrophysical Journal (American Astronomical Society) 959 (2): 113. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad04de. Bibcode2023ApJ...959..113B. 
  • Matthew E. Caplan, Earl P. Bellinger, Andrew D. Santarelli (2023), Is there a black hole in the center of the Sun?, Bibcode2023arXiv231207647C 

External links

  • What If There's A Black Hole Inside The Sun? | Hawking Stars. Space Time. PBS. 20 December 2023. Q6kJaMf3Lgo on YouTube.