After the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began operations in 2022, it soon made a tantalizing discovery in the form of mysterious red dots: small, red-tinted astronomical objects of unknown origin and composition. So far well over 300 of such little red dots (LRDs) have been identified, with many theories on what they are. Fortunately the Chandra X-ray Observatory recently added some more clues as detailed in an accompanying paper.
Current theories include them being a form of primordial galaxy, or a supermassive black holes embedded in a dense gas cloud. The LRD discussed in the paper with the designation 3DHST-AEGIS-12014 was found to emit X-rays unlike other LRDs. By comparing the data between JWST and Chandra for this LRD it lends credence to the theory that these LRDs are a transitional phase as a supermassive black hole ingests the material of said gas cloud.
X-rays produced during this can sometimes make it out of the gas cloud, after which we can observe it. If that’s the case, these LRDs should cease to exist the moment the black hole has consumed enough of the cloud, which is something that we may be able to find evidence for if we’re lucky.
This adds just another reason why keeping the Chandra X-ray Observatory mission funded, after it narrowly got saved in 2024.
Why a dust cloud? Why might they not be the end game after a super massive black hole has consumed almost all the matter in a galaxy?
i’m not an expert but my impression is that black holes don’t emit much, but the cloud of matter rushing into them will heat up and emit as it gets nearer the black hole. so it needs a cloud to glow
I think another problem is that would also violate the presumed time it would take for such a thing to run its course. Even if the universe is much older than the big-bang theory supporters insist it is we would still need to observe things beyond the observable limit.
Don’t read, I’m just being silly:
Remember those little yellow dots your printer puts out as a watermark for tracking? Maybe we can now find out the hostname of the computer the universe runs on and the universe’s filename. And maybe if it’s currently being played by a small kid, which would explain a lot of things recently…
Nah, those are probably dead (hot) pixels
Well, to be honest, this would explain most things in life.
I would not surprise me of this universe is an unauthorized copy.
Just Trisolarans jokes…
If you think about it. We are in the middle of an explosion. An explosion that happened 13.8 Billion years ago. So if you look in any direction, and look very far back in time, you will see the age of darkness. This is after the initial heat of the Big Bang has passed, but the first stars haven’t yet formed. It’s before the age of reionization. So objects right at the edge of this time, would be shrouded in huge clouds of gas. Very dense clouds. All these clouds have now thinned out, and become parts of stars. So, we can see very far. But, at this time the universe was very dense with cold Hydrogen gas. The first stars and galaxies would be readdened by the presence of all this dense gas. We are seeing the inside of the wall of the age of darkness before reionization.
Wrong, the name big bang was originally a sarcastic term for the theory, the concept is not an explosion but an expansion though.
So no we are not in the middle of an explosion according to any current theory that I heard of.
Your mental model is all wrong.
big bang theory … “nobody remembers the party, but afterwards everyone was pregnant”?
Nah, it’s actually the red-shifted fusion exhaust plumes of the rockets the Martians left on, thousands of years ago. Mars had become uninhabitable, so they left. Ships left in different directions, to seed planets around other stars. We are seeing those ships’ exhausts.
Some Martians even went to the third planet to colonize there. It didn’t work out too well. They are still trying to figure out how to be civilized again, and how to regain even just interplanetary flight. Still barbarians, it is said.
Only in the Third Sector. First Sector were quite successful for the most part. The Second Sector… Best avoided.
Since it’s open season on ideas, how about: The Big Bang created multiple universes and the red spots are all that’s left of the red-shifted energy as the others move away from each other, and us? From their POV, our whole universe is just a red spot. :-)
That would not fit any scale we use and the limits in observation as a result of the speed of light limits.
natural lasers!?!?