![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/supermassive-black-hole.jpg\")
Artist’s impression of a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy. Credit: Science Photo Library – MARK GARLICK \/ Getty Images<\/p>\nThe discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope of little red dots \u2013 a previously unexpected population of compact red objects scattered across the early Universe \u2013 has caused debate and a decent amount of head-scratching as scientists scramble to work out what they are.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though most would agree that the light from the little red dots must come either from an early burst of star formation or from material accreting onto a supermassive black hole, no simple model accounts for everything we see.<\/p>\n
More complex, or exotic, ideas are thus gaining traction \u2013 such as a \u2018quasi-star\u2019 with a black hole lurking at its heart.<\/p>\n
Artist’s impression of a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy. Credit: Science Photo Library – MARK GARLICK \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Black hole bomb<\/p>\n
Normally, the creation of a black hole at the end of a star\u2019s life creates a supernova, blowing the host to smithereens.<\/p>\n
This inevitably stops the growth of the black hole in its tracks. To grow large black holes fast \u2013 as the little red dots seem to require \u2013 astronomers have suggested surrounding the new black hole with a dense atmosphere of gas.<\/p>\n
This would come from an accretion disc in the protogalaxy. It\u2019s even been suggested that in some circumstances a star could keep shining as a black hole grows within it.<\/p>\n
Now new research has taken an important step in testing this idea, adapting a well-known code to predict what such objects might actually look like. The results are promising.<\/p>\n
![\"Little](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/08.STScI-01JFJZNA8YMZTJKK52FH5JB4Q6.jpg\")
Little red dots (LRDs), as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Dale Kocevski (Colby College)<\/p>\n
Using a model that places a light black hole weighing maybe 100,000 solar masses (compared to the few million for the Milky Way\u2019s central black hole) in an envelope of dense gas a little bigger than the Solar System, they get results that match much of what we see in little red dots.<\/p>\n
In particular, the dots in the model match the brightness of the real ones in visible and infrared light, as does the brightness of light emitted by the object\u2019s hydrogen gas.<\/p>\n
Assuming this explanation works, the black hole in each dot in this model accounts for up to about 1% of the mass of the galaxy in which it\u2019s forming.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s high compared to what we see in the local Universe \u2013 though this could easily be because of the special circumstances driving the growth of these unusual objects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They don\u2019t produce the bright lines seen in dot spectra that seem to come from helium, nor does the model account for the hot dust seen in many dots.<\/p>\n
The authors suggest that both might be coming from material surrounding the quasi-star itself or, in the case of the dust, floating in its atmosphere, neither of which is yet included in their calculations.<\/p>\n
![\"Once,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Galaxy-cluster-RXC-J2211-7-0350-dots-webb.jpg\")
Image of a little red dot showing how the dot\u2019s colour and brightness both vary over time. Credit: JWST NIRCam
\nThe problem with light<\/p>\n
A more serious problem is that the model doesn\u2019t yet correctly predict the brightness of many of the dots in the ultraviolet.<\/p>\n
The given explanation is that surely such objects would be unlikely to form in isolation, and so we should expect ultraviolet light to be contributed by newly formed stars elsewhere in the protogalaxy.<\/p>\n
This does seem a bit like cheating to me \u2013 but it\u2019s plausible, until new observations give us a handle on the star-formation rates in these objects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Such minor problems aside, this is a good score for the quasi-star model. With every twist in the little red dot story so far, though, new questions arrive alongside answers, and these intriguing objects will be puzzling us for a while yet.<\/p>\n