James Webb telescope zooms in on a black hole that could reveal the truth about 'little red dots'

A deep space image with boxouts over a glowing purple ball and a glowing red ball.

A unique, X-ray-spewing black hole may help to confirm the enigmatic identity of "little red dots," a curious class of objects that are observed mostly in the very early universe, approximately 12 billion light-years away.

Astronomers have sought to classify little red dots (LRDs) since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) first spotted them shortly after it began science operations in 2022.