科技科学

‘Little red dot’ gets its colour from gas — not dust

Nature作者：Dominik Schleicher2026年8月12日正文已收录本站
  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Dust can tint the cosmos red, but a compact astronomical object is coloured by turbulent gas around a black hole.

By

  1. Dominik Schleicher

    1. Dominik Schleicher is in the Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome 00185, Italy.

  2. Rodrigo Herrera-Camus

    1. Rodrigo Herrera-Camus is in the Department of Astronomy, University of Concepción, Concepción, Chile, and the Millennium Nucleus for Galaxies (MINGAL), Concepción, Chile.

Dust, which is found throughout the Universe, absorbs and scatters blue light more efficiently than it does red, so astronomical objects often look reddened when observed from Earth. The reddening of light by dust underpins most theories about little red dots (LRDs)1,2, which are bright, compact astronomical objects with unknown origins. But now, in a paper in Nature, Naidu et al.3 report the discovery of an LRD with spectral properties that might be explained by a large cloud of dense, ionized gas, rather than dust. The authors argue that if other LRDs are gas-reddened, their true masses might be substantially smaller than previously estimated.

Nature 656, 301-302 (2026)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02290-1

References

  1. Matthee, J. et al. Astrophys. J. 963, 129 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Labbé, I. et al. Nature 616, 266–269 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Naidu, R. P. et al. Nature 656, 329–333 2026.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Akins, H. B. et al. Astrophys. J. 991, 37 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Escala, A. et al. Astrophys. J. 995, 44 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Liempi, M. et al. Astron. Astrophys. 708, A44 (2026).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wilkins, S. M. et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 527, 7965–7973 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Mortlock, D. J. et al. Nature 474, 616–619 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, F. et al. ApJL 907, L1 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Rusakov, V. et al. Nature 649, 574–579 (2026).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Latif, M. A. et al. Astron. Astrophys. 694, 8 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

  • Read the paper: A gas-enshrouded and gas-reddened black hole at cosmic dawn

  • Mysterious ‘little red dots’ could be black holes in disguise

  • Galaxy found napping in the primordial Universe

  • See all News & Views

Subjects

Latest on:

  • Astronomy and astrophysics

  • Evidence for the first globular cluster stellar stream beyond the Milky Way

    Article

  • A gas-enshrouded and gas-reddened black hole at cosmic dawn

    Article

  • Numerous bow shocks in the outer Helix Nebula

    Article