JWST Dots May Be Monster Population III Stars Near Collapse
A new study proposes that JWST-detected “little red dots” are not black holes but supermassive Population III stars from the early universe that are in their final moments before collapsing into black holes. The models reproduce the objects’ extreme brightness and a distinctive V-shaped spectral dip, which may arise from the stars’ atmospheres and mass loss. Such monster stars would have very short lifetimes (tens of thousands to ~10,000 years for near-million-solar-mass stars), meaning only a narrow window to observe them; alternative explanations include direct-collapse black holes. Future X-ray checks and especially radio observations could decisively distinguish between the star and black hole scenarios.
