New red specks may hide hungry black holes.
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope(JWST) have stumbled across something they weren’t expecting: tiny, glowing red pinpricks scattered across the oldest parts of the sky. These dots are so unusual that some scientists now think they could be a whole new type of object, nicknamed black hole stars. For people who may not know, a black hole is a place in space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. There’s one at the center of our own Milky Way. Webb’s discovery could show how black holes got their start billions of years ago.
1. Strange red specks filled Webb’s deepest pictures.
When Webb stared at the farthest corners of space, astronomers found hundreds of these compact red dots. Each one is so distant that the light reaching us left when the universe was less than a billion years old, essentially baby photos of the cosmos. Their size and glow didn’t line up with what scientists expect from young galaxies. They were too bright, too small, and too red to make sense under the old rules.
2. One object, “The Cliff,” turned the mystery up a notch.
Among the dots, one called “The Cliff” grabbed attention because its light carried unusual fingerprints. Instead of looking like the glow of stars, the signals hinted at something buried inside dense gas. Scientists think a black hole feeding furiously could explain the strange pattern. That possibility suddenly made the dots more than just oddities—they became evidence of a hidden cosmic phase, as reported by researchers analyzing Webb’s data.
3. The idea of a black hole star is now on the table.
Imagine a black hole pulling in so much gas that the gas itself shines brighter than an entire galaxy. That’s what scientists mean by a black hole star. It isn’t a star in the usual sense—it’s a black hole in disguise, cloaked in a fiery red shell of gas that hides what’s inside. This idea could also help explain how black holes grew so enormous so quickly in the universe’s first billion years.
4. Not everyone buys the explanation.
Some astronomers argue these dots might simply be tiny, tightly packed galaxies or galaxies whose light looks red because of heavy dust. Others think they could be baby versions of galaxies with small black holes at their centers. The truth is still up for debate, and more observations are needed to sort out the mystery. That scientific back-and-forth is part of what makes the discovery so captivating.
5. Their light shows signs of heavy gas blankets.
When Webb splits their light into spectra, it shows patterns suggesting they’re wrapped in thick, ionized gas. That would make sense if a black hole inside is feeding so fast that it traps itself in a glowing cocoon. Yet the absence of strong X-ray signals makes things complicated, since active black holes usually shine brightly in X-rays. This tension between evidence and expectation keeps astronomers hooked.
6. These black holes may be cosmic “teenagers.”
If they are black hole stars, the black holes inside them would weigh hundreds of thousands to a few million suns. That’s smaller than the giants we see today, which can be billions of suns heavy. In other words, these may be black holes caught in their awkward growth stage, still bulking up before becoming the monsters we know at the hearts of galaxies like our Milky Way.
7. They don’t shine like typical black holes.
Normally, feeding black holes blast out X-rays and radio waves. These dots barely whisper at those wavelengths. One idea is that their gas cocoons absorb or smother that radiation, leaving only the reddish infrared glow Webb can detect. Another is that they simply feed differently from black holes we know today. Either way, their quietness is one of the strangest parts of the puzzle.
8. There are hundreds of them.
Webb hasn’t just found one or two—it has spotted hundreds of these red specks. That means they were common in the early universe, not rare accidents. If they really are black hole stars, that suggests black holes were forming and growing all over the place in ways scientists hadn’t expected. Their sheer numbers push researchers to rethink how quickly cosmic structures came together.
9. They could solve a long-standing cosmic riddle.
One of astronomy’s biggest questions is how supermassive black holes, weighing billions of suns, appeared so soon after the Big Bang. If black hole stars are real, they may be the missing step—showing how small black holes ballooned into giants in just a few hundred million years. That would connect the dots between dying stars, baby black holes, and the massive ones anchoring galaxies today.
10. Scientists are checking with every tool they have.
Webb’s infrared eyes spotted the dots, but other telescopes are now being used to probe them in X-rays, radio waves, and millimeter light. If the dots show certain signatures across those wavelengths, it will either confirm the black hole star idea or point in a different direction. This cross-checking is how science moves from suspicion to solid evidence, and astronomers are watching closely.
11. Webb may be rewriting the universe’s first chapter.
If these little red dots really are black hole stars, they change how we tell the story of cosmic dawn. Instead of galaxies and stars forming neatly, there may have been a hidden chapter where black holes masqueraded as stars, cloaked in glowing gas. It would mean the early universe was even stranger, busier, and more creative than scientists imagined. Webb is peeling back the curtain, showing us that the universe’s beginning was far less simple than we thought.