The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted astonishing objects in the depths of space — tiny red dots that shine so brightly it's as if a spotlight were hidden inside a small bulb. These dots are not stars or galaxies in the usual sense, but rather 'cocoons' around supermassive black holes greedily gulping down surrounding gas. When a black hole eats too fast, a blinding glow ignites around it, and we see it as a red dot.
New research shows that these dots are just the tip of the iceberg. Black holes in the early universe grew in fits and starts: they 'slept' for long periods, then threw real feasts, devouring matter at a furious pace. It is during these bursts that they become visible to telescopes. But for every bright dot, there are many quiet, inconspicuous black holes that are also growing, yet their glow is too faint for us to detect.
The model built by scientists traces the fate of these objects from birth to the present day. The seeds were either giant clouds that collapsed directly into black holes or the explosions of the first stars. Then, during nuclear bursts, short but incredibly powerful meals, the holes quickly gained weight. By today, their descendants have scattered across the universe: some became the centers of dwarf galaxies, others the most massive black holes in galaxy clusters.
Thus, red dots cease to be a mystery and become a natural part of the story of black hole growth. They are not an exception but a regular stage, just a very bright one.
Some of these red dots are so far away that their light has been traveling to us for more than 12 billion years — almost the entire age of the universe.
In Dan Simmons' novel 'Hyperion', black holes serve as portals and energy sources for entire civilizations — much like how real red dots might be the centers of future galaxies.