Since their initial discovery by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, astronomers have been making steady progress in solving the mystery of these small, red objects that populate the early universe. 
 
By combining the power of Webb with a natural “telescope,” a team of scientists recently obtained the deepest spectrum to date of a little red dot. Referred to as GLIMPSE-17775, this compact red source’s abundant spectral lines provide multiple lines of evidence that converge to support the black hole star scenario: Little red dots are black holes enshrouded by cocoons of hot dense gas.