Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a new type of cosmic monstrosity: a “black hole star.”
The glowing red object, dubbed MoM-BH*-1, is 100,000 times more massive than our Sun and is trapped in a shell of gas so thick that it looks like a star the size of the entire solar system. But unlike an actual star, it’s not fusion powering its center, but a black hole constantly devouring matter.
As detailed in a new study about the findings published in the journal Nature, the black hole at the object’s center is releasing 100 billion times more energy than any known star. And it’s ancient, having formed less than 700 million years after the Big Bang.
The object, astronomers say, is utterly peerless.
