Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have identified a strange cosmic object in the early universe, designated MoM-BH-1*, that behaves like a black hole while exhibiting the visual traits of a star.
Located in the direction of the constellation Cetus, billions of light-years from Earth, the intensely red object emits light dating back to when the universe was less than 660 million years old. That places its origin in an era when the earliest galaxies and cosmic structures were just beginning to form after the Big Bang.
Researchers describe MoM-BH-1*, also designated as MoM-BH*-1 in scientific analysis, as a black hole star, a theoretical class of cosmic body. Theoretical models indicate that the object consists of a massive black hole surrounded by an immense volume of extremely dense gas.
As matter falls inward toward the central black hole, the intense radiation produced by the process becomes trapped and processed by the surrounding gas envelope. This thick outer shell obscures the underlying black hole engine, giving the entire structure an external optical appearance similar to that of a bright star.
Spectral analysis of the object revealed a perplexing hybrid signal, showing spectral signatures normally associated with stars alongside features characteristic of black holes. Rohan Naidu, a researcher affiliated with the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, noted that at specific wavelengths, the light from MoM-BH-1* disappears with extraordinary abruptness.
Naidu said that this spectral feature is so extreme that no comparison exists among any previously catalogued class of astronomical objects.
Solving the Mystery of Little Red Dots
The discovery of MoM-BH-1* could offer a vital clue toward resolving one of the most prominent cosmic enigmas uncovered by the Webb observatory: the nature of so-called little red dots. Astronomers have identified numerous compact, intensely red sources across deep-field images of the early cosmos, but their true identity has remained heavily debated.
The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in December 2021 as an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, operates primarily in the infrared spectrum. Positioned nearly a million miles from Earth at the Second Lagrange Point, Webb's high-resolution instruments allow scientists to peer back over 13 billion years, capturing faint infrared light from ancient structures that was stretched across space as the universe expanded.
Recent studies suggest that many of the mysterious little red dots spotted in early deep-space surveys may conceal objects similar to MoM-BH-1* inside. These structures appear to be dominated by gas-enveloped black holes, which explains why their emissions simultaneously show characteristics linked to individual stars and active galactic nuclei driven by feeding black holes.
Scientists achieved the breakthrough after concentrating their focus on a mysterious red spot detected within deep-sky images captured by the Webb space observatory.
Origins of Supermassive Black Holes
Naidu proposed that black hole stars like MoM-BH-1* could represent an early evolutionary stage in the formation of supermassive black holes. These colossal cosmic bodies, which can contain hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses, reside at the centers of nearly all large galaxies in the modern universe.
Supermassive black holes play a fundamental role in shaping galactic architecture, influencing how stars form and how galaxies grow over billions of years. In our own galaxy, the Milky Way, a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A* sits at the galactic core, containing roughly four million times the mass of the sun.
If confirmed by future astronomical observations, MoM-BH-1* could serve as a key piece in solving how the first supermassive black holes emerged and expanded in the young universe. Further research will help clarify how these primitive black hole stars grew into cosmic giants and helped steer the evolution of the galaxies seen today.
