Astronomers Detect a Solar-System-Sized Black Hole That Shines Like a Star

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers report a candidate 'black hole star' in Cetus—the reddest object MoM-BH*-1—an entity about the size of the solar system that emits far more energy than any star yet shows stellar signatures. Computer simulations suggest it is a black hole swaddled in dense gas radiating as a star, and if confirmed, such objects could exist in large numbers, potentially shaping early galaxy evolution and serving as seeds for supermassive black holes.