NASA Connects Little Red Dots with Chandra, Webb
This image of a special object, dubbed the “X-ray dot,” represents a discovery from Chandra that could help explain the nature of a mysterious class of sources in the early Universe. The optical and infrared image from Hubble show the region around the X-ray dot, while the Chandra X-ray image shows the close up. Prior to this discovery, “little red dots” seen by the Webb telescope had not been known to emit X-rays. This one does, which leads researchers to propose that the X-ray dot represents a previously unknown transition phase of growing supermassive black holes. X-ray: NASA/CXC/Max Plank Inst./R. Hviding et al.; Optical/IR; NASA/ESA/STScI/HST; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk A newly discovered object may be a key to unlocking the true nature of a mysterious class of sources that astronomers have found in the early universe in recent years. A “X-ray dot” found by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory could explain what the hundreds or potentially thousands of these ob...
