'Baby quasars' spotted by James Webb telescope could transform our understanding of monster black holes
A cluster of faint, red dots lurking in the farthest reaches of the universe could change our understanding of how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) form. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) coincidentally spotted the specks, which astronomers say are actually "baby quasars," while studying an unrelated faraway quasar called J1148+5251. Quasars are extremely bright objects powered by actively feeding supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. The target quasar emitted its light approximately 13 billion years ago — less than a billion years after the Big Bang , according to a study published Thursday (March 7) in The Astrophysical Journal . While these mysterious spots had been previously recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope , it wasn't until scientists viewed them using the far more powerful JWST that they could finally distinguish them from normal galaxies, according to a statement . "The JWST helped us determine that faint little red dots ...