Little Red Dot
In June 2026, JWST provided the strongest evidence yet for black hole stars — ultra-massive primordial objects where a supermassive black hole sits embedded inside a dense stellar envelope, visible as a mysterious “little red dot” at z ≈ 7.3, when the universe was just 720 million years old. Click through the five lifecycle stages.
JWST 'little red dot' · z ≈ 7.3 · universe age ≈ 720 Myr
central mass
10⁶–10⁸ M☉
redshift
z ≈ 5–9
universe age
~720 Myr
JWST · Little Red Dots · June 2026 · cycles every 7.5 s
JWST Little Red Dots · June 2026
JWST began spotting mysterious compact, very red sources called 'little red dots' (LRDs) in 2022. In June 2026, spectral analysis of one LRD at z ≈ 7.3 — when the universe was just 720 million years old — provided the strongest evidence yet that these objects host a dense stellar envelope surrounding an actively accreting supermassive black hole, matching the theoretical black hole star model.