Looking at a reddish dot in data from the JWST telescope, astronomers realized it was no ordinary distant galaxy. The light traveled 12 billion years to reach us — from an era when the universe was young. Inside that dot hides a chick. Its "shell" is a dense cloud of dust and gas concealing a growing quasar core. But the shell is already cracked: X-ray glow and fast-gas emission lines are visible at the center, while a curtain of cold hydrogen and helium still billows outside, obscuring part of the picture.

Why does this matter? Usually we see either a fully exposed quasar or one hidden by dust. The Chick shows the moment when the core's radiation has begun to push gas away and break apart the envelope. Outflow speeds reach 2000 km/s: that's 6 times faster than lightning. This feedback (active galactic nucleus feedback) will eventually clear all the dust, and the quasar will become bright and blue. That means red quasars are not a separate class but just a stage of maturation.