Astronomers solve the secret of small red dots in James Webb images

An international team of researchers has announced that they have solved the mystery of the little red dot photographed by the James Webb Telescope (JWST). They are black holes.

Some of the little red dot found in James Webb telescope images. Source: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Kocevski (Colby College)

After JWST began operating, astronomers noticed something unusual in its images: small red structures, whose size is no larger than 2% of our galaxy, that existed at the dawn of the Universe. They’re called Little Red Dots.

Astronomers have proposed several hypotheses for the origin of little red dots. According to one theory, they are incredibly dense galaxies that can contain up to 100 billion stars while occupying a much smaller volume. According to another, it’s all about the presence of active black holes inside these galaxies.

A team of researchers set out to unravel the nature of red dots. To do so, they analyzed data from several JWST surveys, creating one of the largest samples of such sites to date.

The researchers eventually determined that little red dots appeared in significant numbers about 600 million years after the Big Bang. 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, their population began to decline rapidly. Analysis of spectroscopic data suggests that many of them are accreting black holes actively absorbing matter. At the same time, astronomers emphasize that they will need additional observations to definitively confirm the nature of little red dots.

Earlier we reported on how James Webb unlocked the mysteries of the light echo of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant.

According to NOIRLab

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