Faint, reddish objects known as little red dots have recently attracted astronomers’ attention in deep sky surveys. These weakly luminous sources appear in the most sensitive images of the universe and could point to previously unseen structures.
Findings of the recent study
Research published in the journal Nature Astronomy suggests that the little red dots might be located in small, exceptionally dense galaxies. The authors estimate the total mass of such systems to be about one billion times the mass of the Sun.
The conclusion is based on an analysis of the objects’ light and assumptions about the galaxies’ density. It is assumed that the observed emission originates mainly from old stellar populations packed into a very compact volume.
While the results are intriguing, the authors stress that further observations are required to definitively determine the nature of the little red dots. Future telescopes with higher resolution could shed light on their formation and evolutionary history.