A mysterious object spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope has forced astronomers to rethink what a star can be. It glows in intense red light, spans a volume comparable to the Solar System, and appears to be a black hole radiating like a star.
Scientists analyzing deep-sky images of so-called little red dots found something unlike anything catalogued before. The object, named MoM-BH*-1, has been described as a „black hole star” – a hybrid that seems to blur the line between the two most familiar types of cosmic bodies.
Dr Rohan Naidu, who led the work at the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, part of MIT, called it a new kind of astrophysical object. The discovery was reported by The Guardian and published in the journal Nature.
A star-like glow from a black hole
– We have discovered a new type of astrophysical object – a black hole star – said Dr Rohan Naidu, quoted by the newspaper.
– The object radiates energy typical of black holes, but at the same time it shows features classically associated with stars – added the researcher.
Computer simulations show that MoM-BH*-1 is not a gigantic star powered by nuclear fusion. Instead, the black hole is wrapped in dense layers of gas, causing it to emit light in a way that mimics a stellar surface. Its physical dimensions are comparable to the entire Solar System.
Extreme red light at the edge of the early universe
The object lies in the constellation Cetus, billions of light-years from Earth, and is thought to have formed around 600 million years after the Big Bang. It releases 100 billion times more energy than any known star can produce.
– The way its light is almost entirely red and suddenly drops off below a certain wavelength is so spectacular that it has no equal among any known class of objects – said Dr Rohan Naidu.
The discovery emerged from analysis of little red dots, a class of faint compact sources that appear in nearly every deep-field image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. Dozens of other such mysterious objects appear in almost every deep-space image, but MoM-BH*-1 stands out because its extreme red colour and abrupt cut-off point match no known class of objects.
Source: Polsat News, Photo: Polsat News
