How little red dots are pushing empirical science to the vanguard of intellectual thought
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Recently, the scientific world has been baffled with the new discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope – JWST
(as the name says, a Space Telescope, launched on December 25, 2021 that sits on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) away from Earth which is nearly four times farther from Earth than the Moon is)
of “Little Red Dots” – LRD that turned out to be black holes that were not just massive but also way older than scientists expect black holes could ever be.
Besides the dichotomy of namegiving (little red dots = massive black holes), the research is extremely elegant. Several dedicated programs
(Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science – CEERS, JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey – JADES, Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public Survey – NGDEEP, Public Release Imaging for Extragalactic Research – PRIMER, Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam Observations before the Epoch of Reionization – UNCOVER, and Cosmic Evolution Survey — a project designed to map the evolution of the universe’s large-scale structure – COSMOS-Web)
generated huge amounts of data and images about the universe.
Machine learning algorithms grouped little red objects that were then sorted out through morphology, brightness, and color. By specifically separating some extreme combinations of color cuts, and splitting the object’s light into a rainbow of individual wavelengths through spectrographs, scientists could infer that the light in LRDs was very old coming from very far away, and that hydrogen gas was moving at incredibly high speeds in these objects.
The vast majority of LRDs have been dated between 600 million and 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, and in about 70% of the analyzed LRDs, hydrogen gas was moving at incredibly high speeds—roughly 1,000 kilometers per second (about 2 million miles per hour) which can only be produced by gas spiraling into a supermassive black hole’s accretion disk. In addition, this discovery was also confirmed with older data from other observatories, together with a comparison with other stellar populations. Beautiful.
But why is everyone talking about it?
Why black holes matter so much?
Well, first things first. Let us all agree that name-giving is not a strong part of physicists and astronomers – calling something we know so little about a part of a human anatomy we don’t like to talk about is already an indication.
As weird as it seems, it is through the studies of black holes that science really comes to life. Science, empirical science, is built upon discoveries that are able to move human intelligence and technology further. Black holes are the ultimate test for fundamental physics, general relativity, the quantum gravity quest, galaxy formation, and cosmic expansion. Studying black holes isn’t just about understanding distant, exotic objects. It’s a direct path to unlocking the deepest laws of physics, understanding our cosmic origins, and potentially developing revolutionary future technologies. Black Holes sit the vanguard of intellectual thought.
The kind of science the study of Black Holes is about, empirical science, does not need consensus to be accurate, and that is the beauty of it. Even if everyone doesn’t like the theory or think it does not make sense, that is when black holes, across the whole universe, shine.
So Hurrahs to the brave scientists who are moving us to a better place. Let’s celebrate them through an universe timeline.
Around 13.800.000.000 years ago – The Big Bang
According to its latest definition, the Big Bang is the point in history where the observable universe can be verified to have entered into a regime where the laws of physics (as we understand them) can be applied. The Big Bang theory does not explain what was there before the universe, nor why the Big Bang occurred.10-43 seconds after the Big Bang
temperature and average energies were so high that matter (particles) could not form. The 4 fundamental forces that shape the universe – gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force – were combined and formed one fundamental force.Before 10-32 seconds after the Big Bang
A phenomenon called inflation occurred – the universe suddenly, very rapidly, and exponentially expanded (from something like half of a DNA molecule in length to 100 trillion kilometers long in a tiny fraction of a second).About 10−30 seconds after the Big Bang
The universe was filled with a radiation/light/field that lasted 380.000 years. This phenomenon, called the cosmic microwave background radiation, has been streaming throughout the universe since. Even though scientists are still figuring out what exactly cosmic microwave background radiation is, the images apparently capture the fundamental building block of nature – the quantum field.Around 10-12 after the Big Bang
The quantum field of gravity, the quantum electrodynamics (electromagnetic force), the gluon field (strong nuclear force), and the W and Z boson field (weak nuclear force) were able to take their present forms.1 second after the Big Bang
The quantum fields of matter bedrocks of the universe – the neutrino, the electron, the up quark, and the down quark- were already formed (there are 12 known quantum fields of matter today, of which 8 of them are “heavier” variations of the 4 bedrock ones).1 minute after the Big Bang
The universe had atoms of the lightest and simplest element – hydrogen.2 minutes after the Big Bang
Pressure and temperature were still too high in the universe, enabling a reaction called nuclear fusion to take place. With nuclear fusion, hydrogen atoms quickly fuse to form helium (the second-lightest element).After 20 minutes following the Big Bang
pressure and temperature drop to a point where nuclear fusion ends, leaving the universe with an initial composition of 75% hydrogen and 25% helium (and tiny proportions of other elements).No earlier than 150.000.000 years after the Big Bang
ignition of the first stars.From 600.000.000 to 1.800,000,000 years after the Big Bang
LRDs – Little Red Dots – Massive black holes