'Immortal' stars at the Milky Way's center may have found an endless energy source, study suggests

An illustration of the Milky Way's central black hole, wrapped in orange gas clouds and orbiting stars.

A peculiar cluster of stars swirling around the violent center of the Milky Way could become "immortal" by continuously capturing and destroying dark matter particles in their cores, a new study suggests. 

Using computer simulations of stellar evolution, researchers found that dark matter particles captured by these stars' gravity may frequently collide with and "annihilate" each other inside the star, transforming into ordinary particles while releasing a significant amount of energy.