The James Webb Space Telescope, with its remarkable observational power, recently made a discovery that has left scientists baffled. It detected signs of objects that formed around 12 billion years ago, not long after the Big Bang, which occurred approximately 13.8 billion years ago. These objects, previously unknown, are challenging the current understanding of how galaxies form.
Nicknamed “small red dots” due to their appearance in the telescope’s instruments, these celestial bodies are sparking a heated debate among astronomers. Their true nature remains a mystery: some believe they could be galaxies filled with black holes, a configuration never before observed in galaxies closer to Earth.
How these objects are being visualized may influence their interpretations. Some experts even compare them to octopuses, creatures known for changing color and shape to camouflage themselves, referring to them as “masters of disguise.” Fabio Pacucci, an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Institution in the United States, uses this metaphor to describe the complexity of the “small red dots.”
Appearance Changes and Observation Challenges
According to Mario Hamuy, an astronomer and professor at the University of Chile, these objects are so distant that they appear very faint through our instruments. “They are about 3,000 light-years in diameter, roughly 3% the size of the Milky Way, and have a reddish hue caused by the interaction of their light with dust particles surrounding them,” Hamuy explains.
Unlike home telescopes, the James Webb can capture the light emitted by very distant objects and analyze it in different frequencies and spectrums. When the telescope focused on the farthest regions of the universe, it detected signals from these mysterious “small red dots,” which exhibited unusual characteristics compared to previously known astrophysical objects.
This discovery could revolutionize our understanding of the universe and how it evolved after the Big Bang, raising more questions than answers about what these enigmatic red dots truly are.
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