Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Vasily Kokorev (University of Texas at Austin), Alyssa Pagan (STScI).

The little red dot that would come to be known as GLIMPSE-17775 was fortunately included in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s field of view as it was observing galaxy cluster Abell S1063 for a different scientific purpose. GLIMPSE-17775 is located behind the galaxy cluster and has a cosmological redshift of 3.5, meaning it existed about 1.8 billion years after the big bang.

Since galaxy clusters like Abell S1063 are some of the most massive objects in the universe, light emitted by objects farther away can become distorted as it reaches the telescope. This effect is known as gravitational lensing. The combination of Webb’s 30 hours of observing time and gravitational lensing enabled scientists to obtain the deepest spectrum to date of a little red dot. The result: the strongest evidence to date of a hot, dense gas cocoon known as a “black hole star.”

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: /image/stsci/2026-119a

Curator: STScI

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