Black hole ‘star’: What we know about brand-new mysterious object that isn’t really a star

Astronomers claim to have discovered what NASA describes as a "strange cosmic object that shines like a star but appears to be powered by a rapidly feeding black hole." The object has been named MoM-BH*-1.

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and elsewhere spotted an extremely bright red spot in the early universe.

MIT said earlier this month that the object resembles an enormous star, spanning the size of our solar system.

"But, it is also putting out 100 billion times more energy than any known star can physically produce. In fact, such energies are closer to what a black hole might generate," it added.

According to the institute, the curious combination suggests that the red spot is an entirely new type of astrophysical source, which the astronomers are calling a “black hole star.”

Known formally as MoM-BH*-1, or Mom Black Hole Star One, this mysterious red object existed only 660 million years after the Big Bang.

An analysis of the new object was published in a paper appearing in the journal Nature on August 12, 2026.

Why is it called a "black hole star"?

In the paper, scientists said they discovered the object using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The telescope spotted the bright red dot in the very early universe, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

They concluded that the "most likely explanation" for the strange red dot is that it is a mashup of a black hole and a star — a combination that has never been observed until now.

The object is likely a highly dense cloud of gas, powered not by standard nuclear fusion (as in typical stars) but by a central black hole.

Simply put, this source may provide evidence of an early black hole embedded in dense gas. Astronomers believe that a central black hole may be buried inside an enormous, dense envelope of hydrogen comparable in scale to our Solar System.

“You have something that looks a bit like a star but is 100 billion times brighter...That means you can’t be powering this by nuclear fusion, which is the energy source that sits at the heart of all the stars we have," said Lead author Rohan Naidu, a NASA Hubble Fellow and Pappalardo Fellow at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI).

Notably, black holes routinely produce energy at the scales the team observed.

Naidu added, “We think there is a central black hole that is 100,000 times as massive as the sun. And around this black hole, there would be this very extended envelope of gas that looks like a star the size of the solar system. It’s huge."

Explained | In image, video

Stars (left): Can be thought of as a dense ball of gas powered by nuclear fusion at their centers.

Black holes (center): Typically grow by consuming matter via a pancake-like accretion disk.

Black hole stars (right): Represent a new kind of object -nascent black holes enshrouded in dense gas such that they effectively radiate in a star-like manner.

The accreting black hole, as the power source, plays the role of nuclear fusion, and the dense surrounding gas acts similarly to a pseudo-photosphere.

What's in the name?

The team has named the object MoM-BH*-1, after the survey that detected it, as well as the moniker “black hole star – one,” which implies that the object is the first of others.

The researchers suspect that black hole stars could explain many of the other little red dots that appear in JWST images.

Why is this discovery important?

MIT said that if this bright red dot is indeed a "black hole star", it would help identify the identities of other mysterious “little red dots” that have appeared in nearly every deep-space image NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken so far. Those objects are, however, not as bright as MoM-BH*-1.

“These little red dots seem to be everywhere in the early universe but essentially disappear by the present day,” Postdoctoral Associate Rohan Naidu said. “What exactly these objects are has been one of the most debated topics of the JWST era," Naidu added.

These objects may also represent a previously hidden stage in which young black holes grew rapidly inside gas cocoons before emerging as brilliant quasars.

He further explained that every little red dot is consistent with being a black hole star, embedded in a generic early galaxy. “But what is special about MoM-BH*-1 is, the black hole star is essentially completely outshining its surrounding host galaxy, such that we’re seeing pure black hole star light," he said.