Now Reading: ‘Black hole star’ may explain puzzling red dots in early universe
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‘Black hole star’ may explain puzzling red dots in early universe
‘Black hole star’ may explain puzzling red dots in early universe
American astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a new object, MoM-BH-1, described as a 'black hole star'. Dated to 660 million years after the Big Bang, it looks like…
The Story in Brief
American astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a new object, MoM-BH-1, described as a 'black hole star'. Dated to 660 million years after the Big Bang, it looks like a star the size of our solar system but produces 100 billion times the sun's energy, behaving like a black hole. The findings, published in Nature, challenge the earlier assumption that the 'little red dots' spotted by JWST were reddened by dust. Instead, computer modelling suggests a black hole at its centre, cocooned in gas, powers the object.
Lead author Rohan Naidu of Hawaii University said these objects are among the most debated of the JWST era. The object's light shows no signal at some wavelengths, ruling out dust as the cause. The team now believes such black-hole stars could explain how some galaxies grew so massive so soon after the Big Bang.
The Indian Opinion
The 'black hole star' discovery is a reminder that the early universe keeps defying our tidy theories. Some commentators have played up this finding as proof that the Big Bang model is wrong. It is nothing of the sort. It simply shows how incomplete our understanding remains of the first few hundred million years. The real test is whether future JWST observations find more such objects with the same spectral signature. If they do, the 'little red dots' may finally have a home.
Source: livemint.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
