Mysterious cosmic ‘dots’ are baffling astronomers

The mysterious ‘little red dots’ (LRDs) seen in images of the early universe captured by the James Webb Space Telescope are probably a brand-new type of celestial object, astronomers have tentatively agreed. Researchers now believe these ‘rubies’ to be a hybrid of a black hole and a star: an active black hole wrapped in a cocoon of hot, dense gas that glows as the black hole warms it. Armed with this theory, astronomers are turning to figuring out how LRDs form, how they evolve and whether they still exist in the modern universe.