If confirmed, the findings could help to unravel the mysterious origin of "little red dots" (LRDs), an infamous group of hundreds of distant, crimson lights spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These dots, which are almost as old as the universe itself, shine much brighter than stars but are too dim to be fully formed galaxies, making them one of the biggest puzzles in modern astronomy.
The researchers propose that this dot is a black hole star — an enormous, hypothetical ball of dense gas that surrounds and is superheated by a giant black hole. They've named it MoM-BH*-1, combining the survey that found it with the moniker "black hole star one."
The James Webb Space Telescope spotted the new object as part of its Miracle or Mirage survey, which recently discovered the most distant known galaxy. (Image credit: Getty Images)
This is not the first proposed black hole star. Last year, a study that included many of the same authors identified a black hole star candidate dubbed "the Cliff," which displayed many similar characteristics as MoM-BH*-1. However, the team believes the latest find is "our best evidence" of this never-before-seen cosmic object, the researchers said in a separate statement from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.
The first clue that MoM-BH*-1 was unusual was its striking ruby hue; it is redder than many other LRDs.
However, we can be fairly certain that the shining material is not dust because some wavelengths of light are missing from its electromagnetic spectrum. The absence of these wavelengths, known as a Balmer break, suggests that some light particles are being completely blocked. This, in turn, likely means the light is shining through an extremely dense shell of gas, similar to some massive stars, like Vega.
Black holes are usually surrounded by glowing rings of superheated matter, which we can occasionally see (like this one at the center of the M87 galaxy). But in theory, they could also be surrounded by giant cocoons of gas. (Image credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration)
To figure out why the gas was acting as if it were part of a massive star, when it clearly was not, the researchers ran multiple simulations, which revealed that the only plausible scenario was that the gas was hiding a hefty black hole.
The team estimates that the black hole lurking within MoM-BH*-1 weighs up to 100,000 solar masses, which is just large enough to qualify as supermassive.
Unmasking the "little red dots"
However, until now, scientists could not explain why these objects were not emitting any detectable high-energy radiation (i.e., X-rays and gamma rays), which we see coming from quasars elsewhere in the universe. Black hole stars could solve this issue because their dense gas cocoons could theoretically block out a lot of the high-energy radiation they produce, essentially masking their true identity.
The "little red dots" are one of the biggest puzzles in modern astronomy. There have been nearly 1,000 studies published on the topic since they were first spotted in 2023. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Dale Kocevski (Colby College))RELATED STORIES
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The researchers noted that MoM-BH*-1 could already be part of a larger galactic structure but is so bright that it is "outshining its surrounding host galaxy, such that we're seeing pure black hole star light," Naidu said.
However, much more research is needed before scientists can confidently claim that all LRDs are tied to black hole stars.
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