  It is demonstrated how in the absence of solutions for QCD under conditions
deep inside compact stars an equation of state can be obtained within a model
that is built on the basic symmetries of the QCD Lagrangian, in particular
chiral symmetry and color symmetry. While in the vacuum the chiral symmetry is
spontaneously broken, it gets restored at high densities. Color symmetry,
however, gets broken simultaneously by the formation of colorful diquark
condensates. It is shown that a strong diquark condensate in cold dense quark
matter is essential for supporting the possibility that such states could exist
in the recently observed pulsars with masses of 2 $M_\odot$.
