red dot indicator

Little red dots (LRDs) are a class of small, red-tinted astronomical objects discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Their discovery was announced in March 2024, and they are poorly understood due to limited data collection. They appear to have existed between 0.6 and 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang (13.2 to 12.2 billion years ago), with a majority found around 600 million years post-Big Bang. As of 2025, 341 LRDs have been identified with JWST. They are extremely difficult to observe, even with JWST, being "at the limits" of that telescope's observational capability.
The current leading theory is that the LRDs are a form of primordial galaxy, and the original reports identified LRDs as a type of early active galactic nucleus (AGN) containing a supermassive black hole. However, while this explains their age and appearance, they do not have the same characteristics as known AGNs. For example, they do not appear to emit X-rays, have a flattened rather than steeply rising infrared spectrum, and display very little variability between themselves. In July 2025 it was proposed that instead, LRDs were supermassive non-metallic primordial stars - also known as population III stars - of perhaps a million solar masses, seen in the last few thousands of years of their lifetime.
Theoretical modelling of such stars appeared to closely match the spectrum features and luminosity of LRD, including the presence of a "strong, broad Hβ emission line alongside other Balmer lines in absorption", and in particular the photosphere of such a star would cause the V-shaped Balmer break seen in LRDs. The authors further hypothesised that such stars were progenitors of supermassive black holes, also explaining the early development of the latter objects.
Other theories are that they are quasi-stars, or similar objects consisting of a black hole surrounded by a gaseous envelope.

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