Connecting Little Red Dots
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Read the news release: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/nasa-connects-little-red-dots-with-chandra-webb/
Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Video imagery:
- Hubble Space Telescope image of the X-ray Dot: NASA, ESA, STScI
- James Webb Space Telescope images of Little Red Dots: NASA, ESA, CSA
- Artist’s concept of X-ray Dot as black hole: NASA, CXC, SAO, M. Weiss; adapted by K. Arcand & J. Major
- Composite image of the X-ray Dot: NASA, ESA, STScI, CXC, Max Plank Inst.
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[00:00:00.00] Images of colorful celestial bodies and a rover scroll past. In another image, the curve of the earth gives way to black sky. Title: News from the Universe.
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[00:00:10.87] Text: Connecting Little Red Dots. May 7, 2016.
[00:00:15.10] An image depicts a handful of glowing lights over black. In the center, one light glows a bright red.
[00:00:20.61] Text: A collaboration between NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope could help explain the nature of the recently discovered, mysterious "Little Red Dots" in the early universe.
[00:00:32.96] An array of six red dots appears, with different Z values and survey names.
[00:00:37.99] Text: Little Red Dots were first seen in early images from the Webb Telescope, which detects infrared light. The source of their light, and why they haven't been detected before, is under investigation.
[00:00:50.10] The first dot in the array says CEERS 1 4 4 4 8. Z equals 4.75.
[00:00:55.85] Text: One idea that explains Little Red Dots is that they are supermassive black holes embedded in clouds of dense gas, and the gas blocks many types of light, including X-rays.
[00:01:05.88] A sphere of wispy red gas surround a small, disk-shaped pink center with a black hole in the middle. Text: Artist's Concept.
[00:01:13.07] Astronomers have now found one Little Red Dot that can also be detected in X-ray light, after combing through 10-year-old archival images from Chandra.
[00:01:20.90] Text alternates between, visible/infrared, and, visible infrared/X-ray as a red dot goes from small and red to massive and purple.
[00:01:29.27] Text: Researchers think this X-ray dot represents a transition phase from a Little Red Dot to a more familiar, growing supermassive black hole.
[00:01:38.85] The dot keeps transforming from red to purple. Then the artist's concept reappears.
[00:01:45.09] As the envelope of gas surrounding the Little Red Dot falls onto the black hole, it becomes more detectable in X-rays and eventually appears like a "typical" supermassive black hole.
[00:01:55.80] The artist's concept fades into the purple image of the dot.
[00:02:03.47] While the results still need to be confirmed, the X-ray Dot is an exciting development in the investigation into the nature of Little Red Dots, and proof of how valuable it can be to combine observations by different telescopes.
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[00:02:24.27] Text: This news was brought to you in part by the CHANDRA X-RAY CENTER IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.