Like tiny photobombers, cosmic anomalies resembling small, bright red points show up in almost every snapshot taken by the most powerful space telescope ever made. Astronomers now call them [little red dots](https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/little-red-dots-nircam-image/), or LRDs, but there is no agreement yet on what exactly they are.
Since NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope started peering into the universe four years ago, hundreds of the puzzling objects have appeared in its images. Their unknown origins effectively launched a scientific case that hundreds of studies have attempted to crack.
“This is the first time in my career that I have studied an object where we truly do not understand why it looks the way it does,” said Jenny Greene, a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. “I think it’s fair to call them a mystery.”
One thing was clear from the beginning — these strange objects were common. “Every deep pointing you did with James Webb, you were finding a few,” said Greene, referring to the action of focusing the telescope on the same patch of sky for an extended time to collect extremely faint light.
“I certainly think they’re powered by growing black holes, but there are other, more exotic suggestions, like some kind of very massive star dying,” Greene said. An expert in supermassive black holes and galaxy evolution, she explained that she believes a black hole as the main component of LRDs fits the largest number of the observations made of the objects so far.
Okay, cool but let’s all bear in mind that “mysterious” in this context usually doesn’t mean “oh, my gosh, it could be anything!” It means that they’re not sure which cosmic-but-fairly-well-understood process is at play.
ProfessorBeer on
Project Hail Mary marketing has gone too far
Delcane on
Quasi-stars are back on the menu, boys
BoxGroundbreaking588 on
This is old news. Sounds like CNN: outdated news filled with click bait.
RocketSenpai on
Time to go to Tau Ceti and meet a rock.
dantesgift on
Didn’t we see these on Star Trek Discovery.
Minute_Elephant_3218 on
Where are the mods? We don’t need posts like this from outlets like cnn
drpepper on
It’s the Red Angel time traveling..
ragnaroksunset on
Most high-resolution telescope ever deployed into orbit sees things further away than the other telescopes could see.
Not news, beyond there just being new points of light for astronomers to study (which is exciting for astronomers).
LeoLaDawg on
Fraser or Anton released a video yesterday or the day before terrorizing they’re giant stars, like 1000 AU.
Dog_in_human_costume on
Red blood cells.
We’re inside a giant cosmic being
KilroySmithson on
The little dots are Astrophage.
Lukaloo on
The astrophage is going to spread
smitty2324 on
Black Hole Sun won’t you come, and wash away the rain……..
clueless_as_fuck on
Someday they might find out what they are. Science.
NightIgnite on
I’d fucking hope they’re little
nero_fenix on
Have you tried wiping the lens down first?
istapledmytongue on
$10 billion for a state of the art, groundbreaking space telescope…or one week of an unwarranted, illegal war in Iran. Such greed and waste.
Take your pick.
zCheshire on
I’d be willing to bet they’re actually really big red dots but far away.
Robdon326 on
Paywall,cant read shit. Does someone have the free link
hupo224 on
Run a dead pixel checker through it 😂
chilidetective on
Direct collapsing blackholes skipping nova step? Or are these blackhole suns or sorta the same thing? I’d think we’d see unique objects in that stage of the dense universe. Makes sense to me.
RunninWild17 on
Is it a smudge that looks like a guy?
Fywq on
I say they are Dyson spheres and there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise! Balmer emission lines? Pff that’s just the limited infrared light being scattered through hydrogen or something.
It would be cool if it was Dyson spheres anyway. And terrifying.
nongregorianbasin on
Just spots in the lenses from staring at the sun too long.
Thraxzan on
Must be all those bombs surrounding Federation space 🙄
27 Comments
Like tiny photobombers, cosmic anomalies resembling small, bright red points show up in almost every snapshot taken by the most powerful space telescope ever made. Astronomers now call them [little red dots](https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/little-red-dots-nircam-image/), or LRDs, but there is no agreement yet on what exactly they are.
Since NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope started peering into the universe four years ago, hundreds of the puzzling objects have appeared in its images. Their unknown origins effectively launched a scientific case that hundreds of studies have attempted to crack.
“This is the first time in my career that I have studied an object where we truly do not understand why it looks the way it does,” said Jenny Greene, a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. “I think it’s fair to call them a mystery.”
One thing was clear from the beginning — these strange objects were common. “Every deep pointing you did with James Webb, you were finding a few,” said Greene, referring to the action of focusing the telescope on the same patch of sky for an extended time to collect extremely faint light.
“I certainly think they’re powered by growing black holes, but there are other, more exotic suggestions, like some kind of very massive star dying,” Greene said. An expert in supermassive black holes and galaxy evolution, she explained that she believes a black hole as the main component of LRDs fits the largest number of the observations made of the objects so far.
[](https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/science/milky-way-galaxy-image-astronomy)
Okay, cool but let’s all bear in mind that “mysterious” in this context usually doesn’t mean “oh, my gosh, it could be anything!” It means that they’re not sure which cosmic-but-fairly-well-understood process is at play.
Project Hail Mary marketing has gone too far
Quasi-stars are back on the menu, boys
This is old news. Sounds like CNN: outdated news filled with click bait.
Time to go to Tau Ceti and meet a rock.
Didn’t we see these on Star Trek Discovery.
Where are the mods? We don’t need posts like this from outlets like cnn
It’s the Red Angel time traveling..
Most high-resolution telescope ever deployed into orbit sees things further away than the other telescopes could see.
Not news, beyond there just being new points of light for astronomers to study (which is exciting for astronomers).
Fraser or Anton released a video yesterday or the day before terrorizing they’re giant stars, like 1000 AU.
Red blood cells.
We’re inside a giant cosmic being
The little dots are Astrophage.
The astrophage is going to spread
Black Hole Sun won’t you come, and wash away the rain……..
Someday they might find out what they are. Science.
I’d fucking hope they’re little
Have you tried wiping the lens down first?
$10 billion for a state of the art, groundbreaking space telescope…or one week of an unwarranted, illegal war in Iran. Such greed and waste.
Take your pick.
I’d be willing to bet they’re actually really big red dots but far away.
Paywall,cant read shit. Does someone have the free link
Run a dead pixel checker through it 😂
Direct collapsing blackholes skipping nova step? Or are these blackhole suns or sorta the same thing? I’d think we’d see unique objects in that stage of the dense universe. Makes sense to me.
Is it a smudge that looks like a guy?
I say they are Dyson spheres and there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise! Balmer emission lines? Pff that’s just the limited infrared light being scattered through hydrogen or something.
It would be cool if it was Dyson spheres anyway. And terrifying.
Just spots in the lenses from staring at the sun too long.
Must be all those bombs surrounding Federation space 🙄