A cosmic mirage or a brand-new kind of star?
In short: The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted mysterious "little red dots" in the early universe. One specific object, MoM-BH*-1, defies standard physics: it shines 100 billion times brighter than any known star, suggesting it might be a black hole hidden inside a gargantuan cocoon of gas.
Identified via the "Mirage or Miracle" (MoM) project, MoM-BH*-1 originated merely a few hundred million years following the Big Bang. Although it mimics a massive star with proportions similar to our solar system, its luminosity exceeds what nuclear fusion can produce. Instead, researchers propose it is a "black hole star"—a theoretical "quasi-star" where a central black hole roughly 100,000 times the mass of the Sun feeds on a dense envelope of hydrogen gas.
The discovery provides a potential solution to how supermassive black holes grew so rapidly in the early universe. Because MoM-BH*-1 appears to be "naked"—existing independently rather than inside a burgeoning galaxy—its light is generated entirely by accretion onto the central black hole. This process energizes the surrounding gas cloud from within, causing it to glow like a star while maintaining the power levels of a black hole.
However, the identity of these red dots remains contested. While some teams see them as these unique "quasi-stars," others argue they are actually active galactic nuclei buried inside galaxies whose outer structures are invisible at such vast distances. The team identified the object using a specific spectral drop-off called a "Balmer break," which typically indicates dense gas in stars that are hundreds of millions of years old.
Such entities appear common throughout the early cosmos yet vanish almost completely by today. Whether they signify a transient stage of cosmic development or an unusual optical trick remains a primary point of contention during the JWST period.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: JWST Just Found the First Ever Black Hole Star
- Also: JWST spots a bizarre “black hole star” 100 billion times brighter than a star
- Also: Astronomers discover a brand-new type of astrophysical object: A black hole star
- Also: Farthest
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