Thermonuclear Ignition of Dark Galaxies

Abstract

Dark matter is thought to be at least an order of magnitude more abundant than luminous matter in the Universe, but there has yet to be an unambiguous identification of a wholly dark, galactic-scale structure. There is, however, increasing evidence that VIRGOHI 21 may be a dark galaxy. If VIRGOHI 21 turns out to be composed of dark stars, having approximately the same mass of stars found in luminous galaxies, it will pose an enigma within the framework of current astrophysical models, but will provide strong support for my concept, published in 1994 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, of the thermonuclear ignition of stars by nuclear fission, and the corollary, non-ignition of stars. The possibility of galactic thermonuclear ignition is discussed from that framework and leads to my suggestion that the distribution of luminous stars in a galaxy may simply be a reflection of the galactic distribution of the heavy elements.