The James Webb Telescope Is Changing Astronomers’ Understanding of the Ancient Cosmos
Recent ideas suggest that little red dots could be black holes cocooned in thick gas, possibly representing a completely new type of object called a black...
Key points
- Recent ideas suggest that little red dots could be black holes cocooned in thick gas, possibly representing a completely new type of object called a black hole star, in which the tight shroud of gas emits light like a stellar atmosphere.
- “This would be my black hole,” Mason said, drawing a small circle and filling it in.
- But now if I make my gas clumpy,” Mason said, drawing a new diagram with holes in the clouds surrounding the black hole, “I should be able to get [a signal] that looks closer.” All around the world, researchers like Mason are eagerly piecing together JWST’s glimpses of the ancient cosmos to create a clearer picture of our universe’s beginnings.
- The Universe’s Bottomless Pits The story of black holes has become more complicated thanks to JWST, which keeps spotting ancient black holes that are too big to explain with established theories—much too big.
What happened
More photos
Recent ideas suggest that little red dots could be black holes cocooned in thick gas, possibly representing a completely new type of object called a black hole star, in which the tight shroud of gas emits light like a stellar atmosphere. “This would be my black hole,” Mason said, drawing a small circle and filling it in. But now if I make my gas clumpy,” Mason said, drawing a new diagram with holes in the clouds surrounding the black hole, “I should be able to get [a signal] that looks closer.” All around the world, researchers like Mason are eagerly piecing together JWST’s glimpses of the ancient cosmos to create a clearer picture of our universe’s beginnings. The Universe’s Bottomless Pits The story of black holes has become more complicated thanks to JWST, which keeps spotting ancient black holes that are too big to explain with established theories—much too big. “In order to get them that big so quickly, you have to do some gymnastics.” Scientists look at two key factors that influence a black hole’s size: how massive a black hole “seed” was when it originated, and how quickly these seeds grew after that. In this case, colossal clouds of gas would have plunged directly into a...