Putting it to the test: gravastar theory

By halting the runaway collapse of dying giant stars, gravastars provided a way out of theoretical dead ends

A singular solution Dissatisfied with the contradictions and paradoxes thrown up by classical models of black holes, Emil Mottola and Pawel Mazur proposed an alternative. Their gravastar model gets rid of the black hole centre, and the centre of all the problems, replacing the singularity with a central vacuum bubble helped by a dark energy-like repulsive force.

Halting the collapse Quantum effects within the dying giant star’s interior build up during the collapse phase until, eventually, an explosion fundamentally changes the star’s interior. Holding up the roof Inside the interior a bubblelike vacuum forms, helping against gravitational collapse with dark energy-like repulsive negative pressure. A thick skin

Any remaining matter not thrown out by the explosion is crushed against the growing vacuum bubble, enclosing it in a layer of strange quantum matter.