The old 'dark star' was a star that happened to be dark
In the 18th century, John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace imagined objects so massive that their escape velocity equals the speed of light. Laplace called such a sphere a 'dark star' [2]. The picture was purely Newtonian: a star—a dense ball of matter—whose gravity is so strong that light cannot climb out. The object was still a star in the ordinary sense, just an invisible one.
That early idea captured the 'dark' part but missed the 'hole' part. It described a surface from which light cannot escape, but it did not imply that space itself is punctured or that the matter has collapsed to a singularity. The term 'dark star' therefore described a star with an extreme property, not a fundamentally new kind of object.
General relativity turned the dark star into a hole in space
When Einstein's general relativity replaced Newtonian gravity, the picture changed. The mathematics of the Schwarzschild solution (the simplest black-hole solution) showed that at a certain radius—the event horizon—the geometry of space and time becomes so curved that no signal can escape. Inside that horizon, the matter that formed the object is predicted to collapse to a singularity, a point of infinite density where the known laws of physics break down [2].
That is why 'black hole' caught on: it conveys both the darkness (no light escapes) and the hole (a region from which there is no return, not a solid surface). The term was popularized in the 1960s, but the concept it names is the general-relativistic one, not the Newtonian dark star. The older term was not wrong for its time, but it described a different theoretical object.
Today's 'dark stars' are a different kind of star entirely
In modern astrophysics, 'dark star' has been repurposed. It now refers to a hypothetical first-generation star powered by dark matter annihilation rather than nuclear fusion [1][3]. These dark stars could grow to enormous masses—up to about 100,000 solar masses or more—and then collapse into black holes that seed supermassive black holes [1][4]. They are called 'dark' because their power source is dark matter, not because they are invisible.
Using 'dark star' for a black hole would therefore collide with this active research meaning. A dark star is a star (a luminous, fluid object powered by dark matter), while a black hole is the remnant left after such a star collapses [4]. The two are related but distinct stages, and the terminology now keeps them separate.
Some physicists argue the name 'black hole' is misleading—but that is a different debate
A recent paper argues that the standard black-hole picture is theoretically inconsistent and proposes a new model called 'black stars'—fluid objects with a continuous stack of horizons rather than a singularity [5]. This is a challenge to the physics, not a revival of the old 'dark star' label. The author's 'black star' is not the same as Laplace's dark star or the dark-matter-powered star; it is a proposed replacement for the black hole itself.
So the naming question has two layers. Historically, 'dark star' was an earlier, Newtonian concept that general relativity superseded. Today, 'dark star' means something else in astrophysics, and 'black star' is a term used by a minority critique of black-hole theory. 'Black hole' remains the standard name because it best captures the general-relativistic prediction: a region of no escape, not a star.
Sources used in this answer
Diffuse Neutrino Signals from Dark Stars Seeding Supermassive Black Holes
Dark stars powered by dark matter could seed supermassive black holes and produce observable diffuse neutrino signals.
Black Holes or Dark Stars—What Follows from the General Relativity Theory
The historical 'dark star' referred to a Newtonian sphere with escape velocity equal to the speed of light, distinct from the general-relativistic black hole.
Multimessenger Constraints on Supermassive Dark Stars and Their Black Hole Remnants
Supermassive dark stars and their black hole remnants could contribute to diffuse gamma-ray and neutrino backgrounds, providing multimessenger constraints.
Early Formation of Supermassive Black Holes via Dark Star Gravitational Instability
Dark stars can grow to supermassive scales and collapse into black holes via gravitational instability, seeding larger supermassive black holes.
Universe 2.0: Black holes? No. Black stars!
A theoretical critique argues that black holes are inconsistent and proposes 'black stars' as a new model with continuous horizons instead of a singularity.