Beyond the Orion Nebula is a long and massive filament of cold gas and dust divided into four parts and collectively called the Orion Molecular Clouds. This image shows just a small portion of one of the clouds. esawebb.org/images/potm260…
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This gas accounts for why most LRDs are faint in X-rays; any X-rays given off are likely absorbed by the surrounding cocoons. More typical growing supermassive black holes are not embedded in dense gas, which allows UV light and X-rays from material orbiting them to escape.
Webb captured the most detailed data to date of one of these LRDs (named GLIMPSE-17775, dating back to 1.8 billion years after the big bang) that supports the interpretation that this object is a rapidly growing black hole enveloped in a dense gas cocoon.
In the image, the LRD is in the inset box. The main image shows a massive galaxy cluster whose strong gravity is magnifying the light of this object, allowing us a better look at it. The location of the LRD is at the bottom image towards the right, marked by an orange outlined
Webb has delivered the strongest evidence yet that its discovery of mysterious Little Red Dots (LRD) are “black hole stars.” They appear starting ~600 million years after the big bang, and scientists are still working out exactly what they are. science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/…
Every stage of star formation — from the youngest stellar embryos, to protoplanetary discs, to newly-minted pre-main sequence stars — is contained within just this scene (captured by Webb’s Near-Infared Camera) which stretches 150 light-years across.
Webb is looking at the chemical fingerprints of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS in the mid-infrared 🔎
New data points to a very different formation environment and chemistry for this object compared to most comets that formed in our own solar system.
science.nasa.gov/blogs/3iatlas/…
Which came first, galaxies or black holes?
New Webb observations show that some supermassive black holes were enormous from their beginnings, shifting traditional ideas around how black holes form and grow.
go.nasa.gov/4vaEASC
Westerlund 2 is a young cluster of thousands of stars located about 20,000 light-years from Earth. This close-up image, roughly 12 light-years across, combines observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory & @NASAWebb.✨
At the heart of galaxy NGC 1365, a supermassive black hole is basically feasting at an all‑you‑can‑eat buffet in this image from Chandra and @NASAWebb. Located about 60 million light-years from Earth, this gobbling black hole has a mass of roughly 2 million suns... and growing.⚫