JWST’s 'Little Red Dots' Could Be Black Hole Stars

• Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) propose that the mysterious 'Little Red Dots' (LRDs) in the early Universe are not stars, but black holes shrouded in dense gas.
• Dubbed 'black hole stars,' these objects potentially explain how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) grew to immense sizes within the first 700 million years of cosmic time.

The LRD Mystery

• Roughly 300 LRDs have been identified, dating back to 600 million to 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang.
• Previous theories, such as early active galactic nuclei (AGN) or Population III stars, failed to fully account for observed data.
• Research led by Rohan Naidu (University of Hawai’i) focused on 'MoM-BH*-1,' an object selected for its extreme redness via the 'Mirage or Miracle' (MoM) survey.

Evidence for 'Black Hole Stars'

• Spectroscopy of MoM-BH*-1 revealed an unprecedentedly deep 'Balmer break,' far exceeding what is seen in known stars like Vega.
• The team concludes this is not caused by dust, but by an enveloping cocoon of dense, turbulent hydrogen gas surrounding a black hole.
• The object is approximately 100,000 times the mass of the Sun and operates via accretion rather than nuclear fusion, explaining its extreme luminosity.

Implications for Early Universe Growth

• The dense gas shroud supports the theory of 'super-Eddington accretion,' where black holes exceed their theoretical maximum growth rate.
• Findings suggest that previous mass estimates for LRDs may have been significantly overestimated by orders of magnitude.
• The research suggests that LRDs are likely black hole stars embedded in early galaxies, helping to clarify the central engines of the earliest quasars.
• Further observations are required to confirm if all LRDs fit this 'black hole star' model.