US EditionWebb Telescope May Have Found Birthplaces of Massive Black Holes
JWST discovered Little Red Dots in the early universe may be massive direct collapse black hole nurseries, explaining rapid supermassive black hole formation, researchers say.
- On Jan. 13, the James Webb Space Telescope delivered new evidence showing 87% of hot-dust infrared emission in the Circinus Galaxy comes from regions closest to its black hole.
- Previous telescopes detected excess infrared light but lacked the resolution to determine its origin; the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph Aperture Masking Interferometer provides higher-contrast, higher-resolution data.
- Enrique Lopez Rodriguez said models prefer heated dust in the torus funnel, while Joel Sanchez-Bermudez said `This allows us to see images twice as sharp` and Julien Girard urged broader Aperture Masking Interferometer use.
- These findings position James Webb Space Telescope to obtain a larger sample for comparison, as researchers say the Circinus result can test other black holes, with NASA estimating 100 million in the Milky Way.
- Elia Cenci's team said `Our results show that direct-collapse black holes that are newly formed naturally match the overall abundance and key physical characteristics inferred for the enigmatic Little Red Dots discovered with the JWST`, which may vanish around 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.
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14 Articles
Dark stars could solve three major mysteries of the early universe
JWST has revealed a strange early universe filled with ultra-bright “blue monster” galaxies, mysterious “little red dots,” and black holes that seem far too massive for their age. A new study proposes that dark stars—hypothetical stars powered by dark matter—could tie all these surprises together. These exotic objects may have grown huge very quickly, lighting up the early cosmos and planting the seeds of supermassive black holes.
Scientists Use JWST to Examine Ancient Monster Stars That May Reveal the Birth of Black Holes | Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & SmithsonianFacebookTwitterCenter for AstrophysicsFacebookInstagramYouTubeLinkedIn
Phoenix, AZ (January 6, 2026)— Using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) have revealed the universe's most mysterious distant objects, known as little red dots, may actually be gigantic, short-lived stars.The findings offer a direct glimpse into how the universe's first supermassive black holes may have formed, marking a breakthrough in scientists' understanding …
Little red dots as young supermassive black holes in dense ionized cocoons
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has uncovered many compact galaxies at high redshift with broad hydrogen and helium lines, including the enigmatic population of little red dots (LRDs)1,2. The nature of these galaxies is debated and is attributed to supermassive black holes (SMBHs)3,4 or intense star formation5. They exhibit unusual properties for SMBHs, such as black holes that are overmassive for their host galaxies4 and extremely weak X-…
Are mysterious 'Little Red Dots' discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope actually nurseries for direct-collapse black holes?
The mysteries of Little Red Dots and supermassive black hole growth in the early universe could be explained if these objects discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope are nurseries for direct-collapse black holes.
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