Nature (LRDs) Press Release Package

Nature Press Release Package About the images The cover image shows a mosaic of arbitrarily arranged snapshots taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), each of which is centred on a distant galaxy containing a ‘little red dot’. First observed by the JWST in 2022, these enigmatic red objects have posed a problem for astronomers, who have fiercely debated whether they represent young, star-filled galaxies or unexpectedly massive black holes accreting gas. In this week’s issue, Vadim Rusakov and colleagues aim to resolve this issue with an analysis of the hydrogen spectra from these dots — and they find that neither suggestion is quite right. Instead, they find that the little red dots are young supermassive black holes — much smaller than was previously thought — and that the light does not come directly from the gas being accreted by the black holes, but from the dense cocoon of electrons that surrounds them. Images credit: The CEERS Survey/The JADES Survey/PRIMER Survey/Dawn JWST Archive (individual image credits are stated in the file names) Paper: "Little red dots may be black holes in disguise" DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09900-4 Link: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09900-4](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09900-4) Corresponding authors: Vadim Rusakov, Darach Watson Email: rusakov124@gmail.com, darach@nbi.ku.dk