JWST has only been operational for a few years, yet astronomers have already encountered a puzzle: deep-field images are full of small, bright, reddish spots that resemble neither stars, nor galaxies, nor black holes. They are collectively called "little red dots." These objects appear to be everywhere in the early universe, yet leave no trace in the present-day cosmos. A paper published online in *Nature* on August 13, 2026 has now assigned an identity to one extreme example—a black hole star.
The Discovery
The object, named **MoM-BH*-1**, was captured by JWST roughly 660 million years after the birth of the universe, during "cosmic dawn." The study was led by MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, with participation from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Durham University, and others.
MoM-BH*-1 appears as a giant red light source, only about the size of the Solar System, yet its energy output is roughly 100 billion times the upper limit of an ordinary star's luminosity. Nuclear fusion cannot possibly produce power on that scale—something else must be supplying the energy.
What the Spectrum Revealed
The spectrum gave the secret away:
- An exceptionally strong Balmer break, typically associated with dense gas in stellar atmospheres
- Almost no traces of metals—mainly just hydrogen and helium
The conclusion: MoM-BH*-1 is a ~100,000-solar-mass black hole wrapped in a solar-system-sized, ultra-dense hydrogen envelope. The black hole is the engine; the surrounding gas disguises it as a giant star.
Why a "Star" That Isn't a Star
It is not an ordinary star powered by fusion, but rather "a black hole wrapped in gas, reddened by that gas, and growing rapidly." Red dots and black hole stars may be two views of the same thing: JWST sees red dots, and researchers suspect black hole stars hiding inside them.
The Real Payoff: Solving the Little Red Dots
The team calculated that placing a black hole star like MoM-BH*-1 inside an ordinary early galaxy would produce a total spectrum highly similar to the "little red dots." MoM-BH*-1 is special only because it almost completely outshines its host galaxy, letting us see a "pure" black hole star.
In other words, of the nearly 1,000 papers written about little red dots over the past two years, most may have been looking at the same kind of object: infant black holes in early galaxies, enveloped in dense gas during rapid growth phases.
Even more intriguing: MoM-BH*-1 sits spatially adjacent to a young galaxy at the same redshift, and is estimated to collide and merge with it in about 100 million years. The merged spectrum would closely resemble the "little red dots" previously found inside galaxies. This suggests black hole stars may be the swaddling phase of nearly all supermassive black holes today—including the one at the center of our own Milky Way.
Limitations
The authors are clear about the caveats:
1. A single sample — whether "black hole stars" form a population still requires more observations to confirm. 2. The mass problem persists — a 100,000-solar-mass black hole at cosmic age 660 million years still doesn't solve the fundamental puzzle of how such massive black holes arose so early; it merely pushes the question back one step. 3. Model dependence — the gas-envelope explanation of the spectrum awaits verification with higher-resolution spectroscopy.
Why It Matters
What changes is the narrative. Understanding why supermassive black holes grew so large so early in cosmic history was one of JWST's core science goals set before launch. The black hole star framework ties together three threads—the "little red dots," the central engines of early quasars, and infant supermassive black holes—into one.
Astronomers have never lacked imagination. But this time, it is JWST that has truly let us see that era.