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Show notes
When the James Webb Space Telescope started sending back images in 2022, something mysterious appeared: little red dots, speckled across the sky. They didn’t look like any known celestial objects, and astronomers began racing to figure out [https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/space-little-red-dots/?utm\_source=wnyc&utm\_medium=podcast&utm\_campaign=scifri"]( what they were. There was a lot of hot debate, but researchers are making progress—the dots appear to be black holes, but black holes like we’ve never seen them before. In a [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10846-4"]( recent study, astrophysicist Rohan Naidu and his team looked into one little red dot with the catchy name of MoM-BH\*-1 and concluded it was a new cosmic category called a black hole star. Guest: Dr. Rohan Naidu is an assistant professor at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaiʻi. _Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on_ [https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/space-little-red-dots/?utm\_source=wnyc&utm\_medium=podcast&utm\_campaign=scifri"]( _sciencefriday.com._ [https://pod.link/73329284"]( _Subscribe to this podcast._ _Follow our show on_ [https://www.instagram.com/scifri/"]( _Instagram_ _,_ [https://www.tiktok.com/@scifri"]( _TikTok_ _,_ [https://www.facebook.com/scifri"]( _Facebook_ _, and_ [https://bsky.app/profile/scifri.bsky.social"]( _Bluesky_ _@scifri and_ [https://www.sciencefriday.com/newsletters/?utm\_source=wnyc&utm\_medium=podcast&utm\_campaign=scifri"]( _sign up for our newsletters_ _. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us:_ _877-472-4374_ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See [pcm.adswizz.com]( https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.