Have you heard about the mysterious “little red dots” discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope?
At first, astronomers thought they were ancient galaxies, formed less than 700 million years after the Big Bang. But there was a problem: these objects looked far too massive and mature for such an early universe. They were so puzzling that scientists called them “universe breakers.”
Now, new research suggests a radical answer. These red dots may not be galaxies at all, but a completely new class of cosmic objects — black hole stars.
Imagine a gigantic sphere of gas, glowing like a star. But at its heart lies a feeding black hole. Instead of nuclear fusion, the energy comes from matter falling into the black hole, heating the surrounding gas and making the whole object shine.
This idea could explain how supermassive black holes — millions or even billions of times the mass of our Sun — appeared so quickly after the Big Bang. Something that standard models of galaxy formation struggle to explain.
If true, these black hole stars may represent the very first stage in the life of today’s cosmic monsters.
Once again, the universe proves to be stranger than we imagined.