Monday, August 17, 2026

The JWST Little Red Dots Could Be 'Black Hole Stars'

New research proposes that the JWST's Little Red Dots, those puzzling objects from the early Universe, are objects the researchers have dubbed "Black Hole Stars." They're black holes, but instead of just an accretion ring, they're surrounded by a dense cocoon of gas that colours their light red. These could explain the SMBH found so early in the Universe by the JWST. Image Credit: Rohan Naidu (University of Hawai’i)

Little red dots have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in JWST data from the Universe’s deep past. Their ‘powering engines’ might resemble a newly discovered phenomenon dubbed a “black hole star”—an early, rapidly growing black hole wrapped in dense gas. This object, described in a study published today in Nature by researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and international collaborators, may help explain how billion-solar-mass black holes formed so soon after the Big Bang.



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