Astronomers Discover Possible New Cosmic Object: Black Hole 'Stars'

In the deep past of the cosmos, when the universe was still learning what it was, astronomers may have glimpsed something that does not yet have a proper name. Observations of the early universe have surfaced objects that appear to be black holes wrapped in dense gas—neither the isolated singularities theory predicted nor the stars that form through familiar processes, but something in between. If confirmed, these so-called black hole stars would not merely add a line to the catalog of celestial objects; they would ask us to reconsider the story we have told ourselves about how the universe as