Black holes are some of the most enigmatic objects in the universe, capable of deforming the fabric of space around them so violently that not even light can escape their gravitational grip. But it turns out, much of what scientists know about these mysterious objects could be wrong.
According to new research, published in April in the journal Physical Review D, black holes could actually be entirely different celestial entities known as gravastars.
"Gravastars are hypothetical astronomical objects that were introduced [in 2001] as alternatives to black holes," study co-author João Luís Rosa, a professor of physics at the University of Gdańsk in Poland, told Live Science in an email. "They can be interpreted as stars made of vacuum energy or dark energy: the same type of energy that propels the accelerated expansion of the universe."
Karl Schwarzschild, a German physicist and astronomer, first predicted black holes in 1915, based on calculations using Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Over the years, astronomical observations have seemingly confirmed the existence of objects resembling black holes. However, Schwarzschild's description of these space bodies has some shortcomings.
In particular, the center of a black hole is predicted to be a point of infinitely high density, called a singularity, where all the mass of the black hole is concentrated, but fundamental physics teaches us that infinities do not exist, and their appearance in any theory signals its inaccuracy or incompleteness.
"These problems indicate that something is either wrong or incomplete in the black hole model, and that the development of alternative models is necessary," Rosa said. "The gravastar is one of many alternative models proposed. The main advantage of gravastars is that they do not have singularities."
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