Hyderabad-Born Astronomer Leads Black Hole Star Discovery

Dr. Rohan Naidu, a Hyderabad-born astronomer and assistant professor at the University of Hawaii, led a study published in Nature on 12 August 2026 on a candidate object named MoM-BH-1″. The object was identified in the constellation of Cetus with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope during the Mirage or Miracle (MoM) survey. The study placed the object about 660 million years after the Big Bang.

Black Hole Star Concept

A “black hole star” is a proposed astrophysical object in which a massive black hole forms the core and is surrounded by a dense envelope of gas. In the MoM-BH-1″ model, the core was estimated at about 100,000 times the mass of the Sun, with a hydrogen-rich envelope and little or no dust. The object was described as being roughly the size of the solar system.

James Webb Space Telescope and Early-Universe Objects

The James Webb Space Telescope is a space observatory operated by NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. It is designed for infrared astronomy and is used to study distant galaxies, early stars, and compact objects from the first billion years after the Big Bang. The MoM survey is one of the observational programmes that uses JWST data to search for unusual sources in the early universe.

Little Red Dots and Baby Quasars

Little red dots are compact red sources found in deep-space observations of the early universe. Quasars are extremely luminous active galactic nuclei powered by accretion onto supermassive black holes. The MoM-BH-1″ model was linked to the idea that some little red dots may represent an early stage in black hole growth.

Important Facts for Exams

• The Big Bang occurred about 13.8 billion years ago, and the study placed MoM-BH-1″ at about 660 million years after it.
• The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021 and is the largest space telescope ever deployed in orbit.
• Cetus is a constellation in the southern sky and is one of the 88 modern constellations recognised by the International Astronomical Union.
• Harvard University is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the University of Hawaii is a public university system in the United States.

Research Career and Institutions

Dr. Naidu conducted the research as a fellow at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at MIT. The co-author Jorryt Matthee is associated with the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. The published model used observations from JWST to test whether some early compact sources could contain black holes rather than ordinary stars.