Long-time Syzygy listener Jack asks: "Hey Emily — what's the deal with quasi-stars?" (We're paraphrasing). Quasi-stars are hypothetical, enormous stellar-object-thingies that might have formed shortly after the Big Bang. They're so huge they might have formed with black holes at their cores. If they existed at all, it would explain why astronomers keep finding intermediate-mass black holes in gravitational wave experiments. And as a bonus for you, Jack, Emily presents Hawking stars: otherwise ordinary stars that could be hiding a tiny black hole deep in their core. Could the Sun be a Hawking star? The mind boggles.
Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.
On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypod
Want to help us make Syzygy even better? Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod
Huge thanks to our patrons, listed over on the Cosmic Great Wall of Gratitude
Want some syzygy merch? Get it at the store.
Things we discuss in this episode:
(… as opposed to Quasars)
The research paper that seeded this episode
Asteroseismology, the music of the stars