Webb's 'little red dots' spark debate: black holes or black hole stars?
Astronomers clash over whether mysterious cosmic objects are supermassive black holes or a new phenomenon: giant stars hiding black holes at their cores.
What to know
- Webb has detected mysteriously bright, tiny objects called 'little red dots' throughout the early universe that defy easy classification.
- Two research teams propose these objects are 'black hole stars'—massive stars with black holes embedded in their cores—a previously unknown phenomenon.
- The theory remains contested; astronomers are sharply divided on whether the dots are black holes, galaxies, or this new class of object.
- Follow-up research is underway to resolve the debate and understand how such objects could form in the early universe.
“They glowed blindingly bright, emitting red light with long wavelengths and shining as brilliantly as a whole galaxy. They were tiny, spanning just a pixel.”
Charlie Wood, Science writer · Quanta Magazine ↗ · Sep 13
Anna de Graaff Researcher, Max Planck Institute for AstronomyRohan Naidu Astronomer, University of Hawai'iAnna-Christina Eilers Astrophysicist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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Astronomical community fractures over little red dot interpretation
The bold black hole star hypothesis triggers sharp disagreement among researchers and spawns competing follow-up studies. Anna-Christina Eilers, an MIT astrophysicist studying the objects, characterizes the field as highly polarized.
“The field has gotten very polarized.”
— Anna-Christina Eilers -
9 outlets Black Holes or Black Hole Stars? Astronomers Spar Over Webb Telescope’s ‘Little Red Dots.’
first by Quanta Magazine, 9d ago · also NYT, NYT Science, Nature, ScienceDaily, Mirage News, Universe Today +2
7 more headlines
- Massive Black Holes May Have Started as Little Red Dots The New York Times · 7d ago
- Overmassive black holes and little red dots naturally form in simulations Nature · 7d ago
- New study links mysterious 'little red dots' to early black hole formation qz.com · 7d ago
- JWST’s mysterious little red dots may be black holes growing at incredible speeds Science Daily · 6d ago
- JWST's Red Dots Could Be Rapidly Growing Black Holes Mirage News · 6d ago
- Little Red Dots Are The Seeds of Quasars and Supermassive Black Holes Universe Today · 6d ago
- Black Holes or Black Hole Stars? Astronomers Spar over 'Little Red Dots' HN Frontpage · 5d ago
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One thing worth noting is our popular notion of what a star seems to be is quite different from what astronomers have.One example, Canis Majoris has a radius of about 1420 solar radii. But its mass is roughly 17±8 times the mass of the Sun and therefore an average density of 5.33 to 8.38 mg/m3. “It is over 100.000 times less dense than Earth’s…
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WHY ARE THEY NOT CALLED BLACK HOLE SUNS. IT WAS RIGHT THERE. "Black Holes or Black Hole Stars? Astronomers Spar over Webb Telescope's Little Red Dots" in Quanta https://www. quantamagazine.org/black-holes -or-black-hole-stars-astronomers-spar-over-webb-telescopes-little-red-dots-20260914/
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Perhaps they are somehow related to the elusive white hole: exit points of black holes.Fuel for a Big Bang, if you can imagine. A universe within itself.The article says they're sucking up gas though so I don't know. The arrow of time is weird. It would feel elegant to me, but I'm way out of my league.The imagined scenario only works if you…
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Paper extends black hole star theory to supermassive black hole births — Astronomers publish a paper arguing that Webb is witnessing the births of supermassive black holes inside the cores of colossal stars, suggesting a fundamentally new phenomenon in the universe.
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Researchers propose "black hole star" as new astronomical object class — De Graaff's team and a second group propose that the unusual little red dots represent a new phenomenon: a topsy-turvy lump of hydrogen that shines with the light of billions of suns while hiding a black hole deep in its core. They term this object a "black hole star."
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Two teams announce unprecedented observations of unusual little red dots — In spring 2025, two research teams led by Anna de Graaff simultaneously report observations of a pair of little red dots unlike any previously seen object. The objects are billions of times brighter than the sun yet remain pinpoint-sized.
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Astronomers begin cataloging mysterious "little red dots" in Webb imagery — The James Webb Space Telescope's early images reveal unexplained bright, tiny objects emitting red light. Researchers name them "little red dots" and begin investigating their nature.
What people are saying 7 voices from 1 site · best of 11 · verbatim
- Sep 19
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Wouldn't objects this ancient (following in the wake of the big bang, essentially) be redshifted anyway, on account of cosmological expansion?
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> therefore an average density of 5.33 to 8.38 mg/m3That's nuts. How on earth does fusion happen at that density? Is there a denser core that actually fuses, and the outer fluffy bits just glow from the inner heat?
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Dr. Becky take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuTVjuXu7uEPBS Space Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMdrD_jcYgElove those channels
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Is there an experiment that could resolve this? Literally resolve these objects better, or otherwise distinguish between these hypotheses?Is there anything behind these objects they could lens?
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I always wonder when do they stop considering the outer layers part of the star and not relatively dense solar wind soup. Nobody says Earth has 7000km radius, even tho there's traces of exosphere past 500km.
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The surface radius of a star is defined based on optical thickness. If you were there, the star would in fact look like a fairly well-defined opaque spheroid with the reported radius. The density of the photosphere plasma is near zero, but there’s a lot of it.
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My layman definition of what a star is is "it's somewhere in the sky and it gives off light". The word "density" wouldn't even come to my mind