Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified an "early BiRD," a ravenous supermassive black hole that was already in place when the universe was about 3.8 billion years old, a finding that could help explain a population of mysterious little red dots seen in Webb images. The discovery points to a phase of rapid black hole growth in the early universe and may clarify the nature of compact, red sources that have puzzled observers since Webb began delivering deep infrared views.
The object dates to an epoch roughly 10 billion years in the past, measured from the present, when galaxies and their central black holes were still assembling. Webb’s infrared sensitivity and resolution have enabled astronomers to detect fainter and more distant phenomena than previously possible, making it possible to find accreting black holes whose radiation is shifted and reddened by cosmic expansion and by surrounding dust. The new source has been described as "ravenous," indicating an actively accreting supermassive black hole whose infalling material produces substantial emission that can dominate the light of its host region.
Supermassive black holes—millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun—are known to inhabit the centers of most massive galaxies, but how they grew so large so early remains a central question in astrophysics. Competing theoretical pathways include the steady growth of relatively small seed black holes through prolonged accretion and mergers, and the formation of massive seeds through more direct collapse mechanisms that could produce large black holes at earlier times. A concrete example of a voracious central engine at an age of 3.8 billion years provides empirical constraints on these scenarios by showing that substantial black hole growth was already underway in that era.
The discovery is also relevant to the string of compact, red-appearing sources that have been flagged in Webb survey images. Those little red dots, detected across multiple deep fields, have variously been interpreted as dusty star-forming galaxies, redshifted ancient stellar populations, or obscured active galactic nuclei. Finding an actively accreting supermassive black hole in an epoch when such sources are abundant suggests that at least some of those red dots may represent black hole activity enshrouded by dust or host galaxy light. Establishing this connection would help refine interpretations of infrared surveys and improve estimates of black hole demographics in the early universe.
Confirming the nature of the early BiRD and its relationship to the red compact sources requires follow-up observations across multiple wavelengths and further analysis. Spectroscopic measurements that can determine redshift, emission-line properties, and kinematics will be important to quantify the black hole’s mass and accretion rate, and to characterize the surrounding host galaxy. Observations in X-rays, radio, and submillimeter bands can probe high-energy emission and cold gas reservoirs, which are key to understanding how the black hole is being fed and how it interacts with its environment.
The Webb discovery adds to a growing body of evidence that the early universe hosted a complex interplay between star formation, dust production, and black hole growth. As teams continue to mine Webb’s deep surveys and prioritize follow-up targets, the community expects to refine the census of early accreting black holes and to determine how common such ravenous engines were. Those results will inform theoretical models and may resolve whether the little red dots are predominantly dusty galaxies, nascent stellar systems, or the signatures of hidden active nuclei. The next steps will be coordinated observations and analyses aimed at turning a single intriguing detection into a clearer picture of black hole assembly and the emergence of the first luminous structures.