NASA X-ray dot may solve little red dot mystery

Key Points

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory found an X-ray dot that may explain little red dots.
The object is 11.8 billion light-years away and glows in X-rays.
Little red dots are distant, red objects discovered by James Webb Space Telescope.

8 billion light-years from Earth, according to NASA. It exhibits most features of a little red dot (LRD), including being small, red, and at a vast distance, but it glows in X-ray light. LRDs are small, red objects about 12 billion light-years from Earth or farther, discovered after the James Webb Space Telescope started science observations.

This X-ray dot may provide a crucial bridge between black hole stars and typical growing supermassive black holes, NASA said. The exact nature of the X-ray dot and its relation to other LRDs that do not emit X-rays remain unclear.