Nearly 350 faint red objects seen by JWST may be black holes caught in short-lived nuclear bursts, according to a new theoretical study by Yangyao Chen and Houjun Mo.
The model says tiny black hole seeds formed less than 200 million years after the Big Bang and then grew through episodic, merger-driven super-Eddington feeding at up to 10 times the theoretical limit.
By about 1 billion years after the Big Bang, those black holes reach roughly 100,000 to 1 million solar masses, while intense star formation and accretion produce the unusual V-shaped spectrum and broad emission lines.
The work argues Little Red Dots emerge naturally within the standard ΛCDM framework rather than from fine-tuned assumptions, challenging ideas that they are primordial galaxies, Population III stars or quasi-stars.
The model also predicts many more such rapidly growing black holes lie beyond JWST's current reach, while surviving objects could evolve into compact dwarf galaxies or globular cluster-like systems.