Since 2022, strange red dots have appeared in images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. These bright objects caused much discussion among scientists. Now, researchers have identified one of these mysteries: a "black hole star." This unusual object, named MoM-BH*-1, existed about 660 million years after the universe began. This means we are looking back over 13 billion years.
The size of this object is hard to imagine. It has a black hole at its center that is about 100,000 times heavier than our sun. Around this black hole is a huge cloud of hydrogen gas, as wide as our solar system. Rohan Naidu, a lead researcher from the University of Hawaii, explained that their understanding is changing quickly. He said the object has a central black hole 100,000 times the sun's mass, surrounded by a gas cloud the size of the solar system.
This structure shines 100 billion times brighter than a normal star. This extreme brightness suggests it is not a regular star. Instead, the black hole star creates light from the friction of material falling into the black hole. This light shines through the gas, making it glow red. Robert Simcoe from MIT's Kavli Institute noted that astronomers usually think dust causes red colors in space. However, MoM-BH*-1 has almost no heavy elements, only hydrogen and helium. The red color comes from the gas itself.
The James Webb Space Telescope's instruments confirmed this. They saw a specific pattern in the light that ruled out a normal star. The "Mirage or Miracle" program found this object, which might explain the mysterious red dots seen in the early universe. Researchers believe this black hole star is so bright it lets us see its unfiltered light. It is expected to collide with a nearby galaxy in about 100 million years. This discovery helps scientists understand how early supermassive black holes formed.