They\u2019re struggling to connect the dots.<\/p>\n
Scientists are baffled over mysterious dots captured by the James Webb Space Telescope \u2014 with some suggesting they could be giant stars from the origins of the Universe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time in my career that I have studied an object where we truly do not understand why it looks the way it does,\u201d Jenny Greene, a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, told CNN.<\/a> \u201cI think it\u2019s fair to call them a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n An artist\u2019s impression of the James Webb Telescope, which first captured the objects when it began scanning the cosmos four years ago. NASA \/ SWNS<\/p>\n The spacely speckles first started showing up in data recorded by the James Webb Space Telescope when it began scanning the cosmos four years ago.<\/p>\n Scientists observed that the dots were ubiquitous in the early universe \u2014 within the first two billion years following the Big Bang \u2014 but their identity has remained a mystery, the BBC\u2019s Sky At Night magazine reported.<\/a><\/p>\n They initially theorized that the celestial freckles could be massive galaxies powered by black holes that are amassing matter. However, there were some holes in this theory, namely that the dots seemed smaller than expected for a typical galaxy and that they didn\u2019t display a clear X-ray emission typical of actively feeding black holes, LiveScience reported.<\/a><\/p>\n While scientists still think they could be powered by these gigantic cosmic vortexes, there might be another explanation, such as \u201csome kind of very massive star dying,\u201d according to Greene.<\/p>\n Astronomers compiled one of the largest surveys of red dots to date. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Dale Kocevski (Colby College)<\/p>\n