The mysterious red dots detected by the James Webb Space Telescope—a project of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency—in the primordial universe may conceal an entirely new class of cosmic objects. According to a study published in the journal *Astronomy and Astrophysics* and led by Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, these objects could be hybrids between stars and black holes: gigantic, dense spheres of hot gas that resemble stars but are powered by supermassive black holes devouring matter and emitting light.
The authors of the research suggest these objects might represent the missing link in the formation of the giant black holes seen at the center of galaxies today. Until now, the red dots discovered in Webb’s earliest observations were thought to be incredibly ancient, already-mature galaxies in the infant universe, a finding that challenged existing knowledge about galactic formation. However, analyses by researchers, led by Anna de Graaff, indicate the dots are too luminous; the stars would need to be packed at an impossible density, implying a formation process never before observed.
In July 2024, researchers identified a particularly massive object, the most extreme case among the red dots found. “Its extreme properties,” de Graaff stated, “forced us to go back to the drawing board and devise completely new models.” Analyses of its emitted light suggested it was not a dense star cluster but a single, giant object—a black hole pulling in matter at such a high rate that it became enveloped in a sphere of incandescent gas.
“This is the best idea we have and the first one that really fits almost all the data,” concluded Joel Leja of Penn State University, a co-author of the research. “So now we need to develop it further.”
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