James Webb Telescope identifies unprecedented cosmic object: a ‘black hole star’
Astronomers have identified a tiny reddish dot through the James Webb telescope that suggests the existence of an unprecedented category of celestial body. It is a black hole surrounded by an extremely thick and dense layer of gas, causing the whole to exhibit characteristics similar to those of a star of colossal proportions. The phenomenon was observed on August 16, 2026.
Named MoM-BH-1*, the cosmic body is perceived as it existed approximately 660 million years after the Big Bang, a period that marks an initial and primordial stage of the Universe.
According to the study published in the journal “Nature” last week, most of the detected luminosity appears to emanate from a central black hole and the gas that surrounds it, with a minimal contribution from the host galaxy.
On the same topic: Object with the most distant black hole ever seen helps solve mystery of Webb’s ‘red dots’
The team of scientists located this object while carrying out an investigation to find the first galaxies formed in the Universe.
The object stood out in Webb’s photographs due to its intense reddish color and its great brightness. However, a detailed spectral analysis of its light revealed atypical behavior for an ordinary star: at certain frequencies, its luminosity decreases by more than twenty times.
It is common for distant celestial bodies to have a reddish hue, as cosmic dust tends to absorb blue wavelengths of light more efficiently.
This same explanation was one of the predominant theories for “little red dots”, or small red dots, compact formations that the James Webb telescope observed in abundance in the Universe in its early phases.
However, data relating to MoM-BH-1* suggest a different interpretation. The object’s reddish color appears to result primarily from the presence of a vast amount of dense, churning gas surrounding the black hole, rather than being caused by dust.
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This gaseous envelope acts as a shield: the bluer portion of the light generated near the black hole cannot pass through it, while the redder wavelengths are transmitted more easily to observers.
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At the heart of this system, there is an ever-expanding black hole, which feeds on surrounding matter. The layer of gas that surrounds it would form a much larger structure, giving the object a stellar appearance, despite its energy source being completely different.
Rohan Naidu, lead author of the study, commented in a statement that “there is something that resembles a star, but with a brightness a hundred billion times brighter. This implies that its energy cannot come from nuclear fusion, the engine of all known stars.”
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This new discovery, additionally, may provide an answer to one of the great mysteries that the James Webb Telescope helped to elucidate.
The “little red dots” are regularly observed in records of the Universe in its youth, and their true composition is still a subject of debate. If a portion of these objects also consist of black holes hidden by dense gas, their masses could have been overestimated, which would require a reassessment of the process of formation and rapid growth of primordial giant black holes.
The scientists themselves, however, state that the current model represents one of the possible interpretations for the observations made and that the mechanism of formation of these objects remains a field of investigation.
Additional information, including from future radio telescopes, may reveal attributes that the James Webb telescope, by itself, is not capable of quantifying.
