Astronomers Find New 'Black Hole Star' in Early Universe

The Cliff News | 17 August 2026

Astronomers have identified a groundbreaking new type of celestial object, a phenomenon they are calling a "black hole star." This discovery, made using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), reveals an intensely bright red spot in the very early universe, challenging existing understandings of astrophysical objects.

The object, observed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, presents a perplexing duality. It appears to be an enormous star, comparable in size to our solar system, yet it emits energy levels 100 billion times greater than any known star can produce. These extraordinary energy outputs are more akin to those generated by black holes, suggesting a hybrid nature.

A Novel Astrophysical Object

The remarkable combination of stellar appearance and black hole-like energy production has led researchers to conclude that this "black hole star" is an entirely new category of astrophysical source. The findings were detailed in a recent paper published in the journal Nature.

Scientists theorize that the object is likely a dense cloud of gas powered not by nuclear fusion, common in stars, but by a central black hole. This central black hole is estimated to be 100,000 times as massive as the sun, surrounded by a vast envelope of gas that gives it a star-like appearance and size.

“Our picture of this object is evolving very rapidly,” stated lead author Rohan Naidu, a NASA Hubble Fellow and Pappalardo Fellow at MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI). “We think there is a central black hole that is 100,000 times as massive as the sun. And around this black hole, there would be this very extended envelope of gas that looks like a star the size of the solar system. It's huge.”

Solving the Mystery of 'Little Red Dots'

If confirmed, the existence of "black hole stars" could provide a crucial explanation for numerous mysterious "little red dots" that have been detected in nearly every deep-space image captured by JWST to date. These enigmatic objects have been a subject of intense debate among astronomers.

“These little red dots seem to be everywhere in the early universe but essentially disappear by the present day,” Naidu noted. “What exactly these objects are has been one of the most debated topics of the JWST era.” The "black hole star" offers a compelling candidate for their identity.