## Unveiling the Mystery of "Little Red Dots" Astronomers believe they have solved the puzzle of the so-called "little red dots" in space, a population of bizarre objects at the edge of the observable universe. A recent study published in *Nature* suggests that these dots are actually the youngest black holes ever observed, "cocooned" in dense gas, a never-before-seen phenomenon that sheds light on the early evolution of the universe. Vadim Rusakov, an astronomer at the University of Manchester, explained that the "little red dots" were first spotted in 2023 in the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These are small, bright, and red objects, observed when the universe was only 5-15% of its current age. These properties have sparked a lively debate about their nature, with some hypotheses suggesting exotic galaxies or unusually massive black holes. ## Young Black Holes in Their Infancy Rusakov and his colleagues analyzed JWST observations of over a dozen of these red dots, confirming that they are likely black holes wrapped in a "cocoon" of energetic gas. This would explain their unique properties: the gas blocks X-ray emissions and warps light, making them appear more massive than they actually are. Calculations indicate that the black holes have a mass of a few million times that of the Sun, a hundred times less than previously estimated. These findings are part of a wave of discoveries about the early universe, made possible by the precision of the JWST. Rusakov pointed out how some initially problematic galaxies turned out to be these "little red dots", mistakenly interpreted as purely stellar galaxies. ## New Questions About Galactic Evolution The discovery raises new questions about galactic evolution. It is still unclear whether these young black holes grow faster than the galaxies they are associated with, and what implications this may have for our understanding of the universe. The "red dots" show us what black holes looked like a long time ago, and if we are lucky, they may reveal how these supermassive black holes formed. It remains to be seen whether black holes start small and grow, or whether they are born already large. These questions will surely keep scientists busy for some time.