<p>Is it possible that dark matter could collapse gravitationally, forming massive bodies similar to stars or planets?</p>
<p>When I say &quot;similar&quot;, I don't mean to imply that they would undergo nuclear fusion or have solid surfaces, merely that gravitational collapse could create a much higher density of dark matter within some spherical region of a size similar to a star or planet.</p>
<p>My thought is that if there were, say, some billions of roughly solar-mass collapsed dark matter bodies in this galaxy, and they weren't associated with normal stars, we likely wouldn't be able to detect them. Gravitationally, they'd be part of the background noise; we can't, as far as I know, detect the gravitational influence of individual stars on each other over distances of light-years.</p>
<p>Is this plausible?</p>
<p>(What isn't plausible is that I'm the first person to think of this, so if there's existing research I'd be interested in seeing it.)</p>
<p>I understand that we don't know what dark matter is, and therefore this question might be unanswerable at this time.</p>

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2021-03-15T22:41:17.603Z
This is an interesting question! I wonder if dark matter has a compressibility, or can scatter enough to equilibrate and have a local temperature. Hopefully answers here will address that so it doesn't have to be asked separately.
uhoh
<dark-matter>
Could dark matter form coherent bodies the size of stars or planets?
Keith Thompson
# Could dark matter form coherent bodies the size of stars or planets?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-03-15)

Is it possible that dark matter could collapse gravitationally, forming massive bodies similar to stars or planets?

When I say "similar", I don't mean to imply that they would undergo nuclear fusion or have solid surfaces, merely that gravitational collapse could create a much higher density of dark matter within some spherical region of a size similar to a star or planet.

My thought is that if there were, say, some billions of roughly solar-mass collapsed dark matter bodies in this galaxy, and they weren't associated with normal stars, we likely wouldn't be able to detect them. Gravitationally, they'd be part of the background noise; we can't, as far as I know, detect the gravitational influence of individual stars on each other over distances of light-years.

Is this plausible?

(What isn't plausible is that I'm the first person to think of this, so if there's existing research I'd be interested in seeing it.)

I understand that we don't know what dark matter is, and therefore this question might be unanswerable at this time.

**Tags:** dark-matter

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This is an interesting question! I wonder if dark matter has a compressibility, or can scatter enough to equilibrate and have a local temperature. Hopefully answers here will address that so it doesn't have to be asked separately.  

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