Black holes disguised as little red dots.

Three years have passed since the JWST began revealing its sharp and sensitive view of the distant Universe (1). One of its discoveries that has generated intense debate is a population of light sources that were identified in the early Universe (about a few hundred to a billion years after the Big Bang). These red and compact astronomical objects, nicknamed "little red dots" (2), are so common that they are easily found with the JWST despite the telescope's small field of view. They are thought to be powered by the gravitational energy that is released by material falling onto a supermassive black hole (with a mass above a million solar masses; 1 solar mass is equivalent to 2 × 1033 g). The abundance and unusual properties of little red dots could potentially unveil a new phase in the emergence of supermassive black holes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]