Astronomers Weighed a 'Little Red Dot' Discovered by the James Webb Telescope — and Found a 'Naked' Black Hole Inside

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope reveals black hole formed before galaxy

Research conducted using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has identified a black hole that may have formed before the galaxy.

Scientists offer new evidence about 'little red dots' in early universe

Right now astronomers are dealing with their own chicken-and-egg conundrum: Which came first, the galaxy or the big black hole inside it? Astronomers often estimate the weight of a black hole by using the brightness and width of certain light signals in space coming from hot gas. Some researchers have argued those methods severely exaggerate the masses of strange "little red dots" in the early universe. Since their discovery by NASA's James Webb…

"Little red dot" in early Universe is a naked supermassive black hole

The black hole accounts for over two-thirds the mass of the object it inhabits.

James Webb telescope spots supermassive black hole that formed before its galaxy

The latest from the James Webb Space Telescope could completely change what we know about the formation of these astronomical bodies.

Astronomers weighed a 'little red dot' discovered by the James Webb telescope — and found a 'naked' black hole inside

Astronomers have weighed a black hole in a "little red dot" seen just 700 million years after the Big Bang, revealing it to be so overmassive relative to its host galaxy that it may have formed before the galaxy itself had a chance to develop.

Gigantic ‘little red dot’ threatens to upend cosmic history

Debate still swirls around the nature of “little red dots,” black holes glimpsed in the early universe by the James Webb Space Telescope. A controversial new weigh-in may settle the matter