The Black Hole Wrapped in a Star: JWST's Cosmic Dawn Discovery

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Anna: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Astronomy

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AstroDailyPod. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. And no Anna. Uh, I still

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haven't slept. Except now. It's not the

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eclipse's fault. It's the meteor shower's

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fault.

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Anna: The Perseids really picked a big week to

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peek.

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Avery: It's Friday, August 14th. Series 5

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Episode 167 so after

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yesterday's total solar eclipse special,

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you'd think this guy would take a night off.

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It did not.

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Anna: It really didn't.

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Today's main storey is a big one for anyone

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who was fascinated by yesterday's black hole

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storey. Astronomers using Jane's Webb have

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found what they're calling a black hole star.

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And it might solve a 50 year old mystery

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about how supermassive black holes get so

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big so fast.

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Avery: Which incredible timing because yesterday we

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told you about three supermassive black holes

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sharing one galaxy. Today's storey is

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basically, here's how black holes like that

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get so mass in the first place.

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Anna: Then we've got three more. The Perseid meteor

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shower's spectacular peak overnight, a

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new satellite designed to keep watch over

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what other countries are doing in

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geostationary orbit, and a very

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well earned retirement. Veteran astronaut

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Mike Finke is hanging up his flight suit

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after 30 years at NASA.

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Avery: Lots to get through. Let's get into it.

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Anna: Okay, so first, what even is a

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black hole star? Because that sounds like a

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contradiction.

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Avery: It kind of is, and that's the point.

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Picture a young, rapidly growing black hole.

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But instead of the thin, tidy accretion disc

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you usually picture, it's wrapped in this

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incredibly dense, turbulent gas cocoon of

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gas. So dense that the whole thing glows

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and radiates almost like a star would, even

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though the engine at the centre is a black

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hole.

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Anna: So it's a black hole in a gas trench

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coat.

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Avery: Basically, yes. And because that gas envelope

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is so puffed up, the object appears

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absolutely enormous, over a hundred thousand

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times the size of the sun in terms of the

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light emitting region. Even though the black

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hole itself and its usual accretion disc

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would normally be tiny by comparison.

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Anna: And this particular one has a name.

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Avery: Mom. BH1 mom standing

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for the Mirage or Miracle JWST

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survey came out of. Which is a great name for

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a survey. Honestly. The light we're seeing

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left this object about 660 million

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years after the Big Bang. That's roughly 13

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billion years ago, which makes it the

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earliest confirmed black hole star found so

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far.

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Anna: So we're really at the edge of what Webb can

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see.

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Avery: Right at the edge. This is Cosmic dawn

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territory. The team is led by Rohan Naidu at

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the University of Hawaii's Institute for

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Astronomy, working with Yorit Matthy at the

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Institute of Science and Technology, Austria.

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And what tipped them off was something called

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a balmer break. A specific spectral

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signature usually associated with stars,

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showing up alongside signs of a genuinely

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supermassive black hole.

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Anna: Which shouldn't really go together.

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Avery: Exactly. That's combination is what makes

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this object so weird and so interesting. It's

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got a stellar looking spectral fingerprint,

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but the mass and energy output screen. Black

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hole.

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Anna: Okay, so why does this matter beyond just

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cool, a new weird object, what

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mystery does it actually help solve?

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Avery: So here's the 50 year old problem. We know

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there are supermassive black holes billions

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of times the size of the sun, sitting in

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galaxies from a remarkably early in the

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universe's history. The issue is there hasn't

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been anywhere near enough time for a black

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hole to grow that big just by slowly

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swallowing gas at the normal rate. It's like

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finding a fully grown oak tree three weeks

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after you planted the acorn.

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Anna: Right. We talked about a version of this

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exact puzzle yesterday with those three black

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Avery: holes in one galaxy, exactly the same

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puzzle. And this black hole star might be a

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missing piece. A black hole caught in the act

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of growing at a wildly accelerated rate,

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hidden inside this dense gas envelope, which

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is actually feeding it far faster than a

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normal thin disc could.

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Anna: So it's not just growing, it's basically

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bulking up and fast forward.

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Avery: That's the idea. And there's an even bigger

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connection here. You might have heard of

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little red dots, these mysterious compact

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red objects Webb started finding all over the

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sky back in 2024. Nobody could

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quite explain why they were so red, so common

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in the early universe, and then basically

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absent today.

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Anna: I remember these being a, uh, genuine head

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scratcher.

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Avery: Total head scratcher. And the leading theory

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now is that little red dots and black hole

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stars might be the same phenomenon. A

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black hole wrapped in a hot ionised gas

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cocoon that glows almost star like while

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it grows, then fades from view once it's

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eaten through its envelope. So this one

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object, Mom BH1, could

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be the best example yet of the engine that's

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been powering hundreds of these little red

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dots.

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Anna: That's a big claim for one object.

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Avery: It is. And to be fair to the sceptics in the

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room, the mirage half of Mirage

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Remerical is doing some work in that title.

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This is still a hotly debated interpretation.

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The whole result rests on reading a fairly

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subtle spectral signature correctly and this

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kind of thing has been published as a

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preprint and argued over for more than a year

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before this. Not everyone agrees black hole

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stars are definitely the answer to the little

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red dot puzzle.

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Anna: Yet. So healthy scepticism, but a uh,

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genuinely exciting candidate.

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Avery: Right? And Matthew actually leaned into that

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tension directly. His quote was far

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from a mirage. This might well be a cosmic

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miracle.

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Anna: I love an astronomer with a sense of drama.

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Avery: Nadia's take was a bit more measured but

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still pretty thrilled. He said something like

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we're getting really close to figuring out

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how these black hole stars form. His current

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best guess is that they might start from

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mergers of supermassive stars. Stars

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weighing tens of thousands of suns inside

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dense globular star clusters in the early

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universe built up through repeated stellar

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collisions.

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Anna: So giant stars collide and merge,

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eventually collapse toward a black hole. And

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the whole mess is still wrapped in gas as it

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does it. So it glows like this hybrid black

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hole starfing.

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Avery: That's the working model. And it would also

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explain some genuinely weird properties

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astronomers have noticed in old globular

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clusters closer to home. Like unusual

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chemical patterns that have never quite made

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sense.

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Anna: Though this one distant 13 billion

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year old object might help explain both how

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the biggest black holes in the universe got

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so big and some local mysteries sitting in

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our own galactic backyard.

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Avery: That's the hope. Webb's going to keep hunting

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for more of these. Mambh Star 1 being the

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earliest confirmed one just means it's the

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current record holder, not the last one we'll

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find.

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Anna: Which tying it back to yesterday. If black

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hole stars like this really are the growth

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hack behind those triple black hole systems

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we talked about, that's two huge storeys in

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two days that are actually two chapters of

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the same bigger picture.

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Avery: The early universe was apparently just an

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absolute black hole buffet.

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Anna: A fitting way to put it. Great segment to

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follow yesterday's.

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Avery: Okay, storey two. And this is the one that's

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actually responsible for my sleep

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deprivation. The Perseid meteor shower

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peaked overnight between August 12th and

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13th, just hours after yesterday's total

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solar eclipse wrapped up an

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Anna: eclipse and a uh, meteor shower peak within

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about a day of each other. That's a genuinely

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rare double bill.

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Avery: It really is. And the conditions could not

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have been better. This happened right around

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the August New Moon. So skies were nice and

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dark. No moonlight washing out the fainter

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meteors. Observers in good locations were

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reporting hundreds of shooting stars visible

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to the naked eye across the peak night

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remind people

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Anna: what they're actually looking at when they

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Avery: see a Perseid So the Perseids are

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debris from Comet 109P Swift

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Tuttle. Mostly tiny dust and sand sized

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particles that Earth ploughs through every

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year around this time. They're travelling at

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about 37 miles a second when they hit the

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atmosphere which is why they burn up in these

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Anna: bright fast streaks, small pieces

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of comet dust dying dramatically. Very

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poetic.

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Avery: Genuinely is. And the astrophotography from

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this year's peak has been stunning. I saw

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shots combining Perseid streaks with the

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Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy and the

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Pleiades cluster all in the same frame. Frame

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Photographers were out shooting from Iran,

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Israel, Texas, Spain, Turkey,

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China. Genuinely a uh, global event.

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Anna: One photographer's quote stuck with me,

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something like I've got the Pleiades,

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Andromeda Galaxy and Milky Way with the

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Perseids basically describing an entire deep

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sky greatest hits tour in one photo.

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Avery: Exactly that kind of night. And if you miss

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the exact peak, don't panic. Swift Tuttle's

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debris trail stays active through about

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August 24th. So you'll still catch meteors

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most nights this week just at a lower rate

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than peak.

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Anna: So there's still time to get outside, find

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some dark sky and Give your eyes 20 minutes

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or so to adjust.

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Avery: No telescope needed for this one either.

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Binoculars and telescopes are actually the

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wrong tool. Just your eyes and a wide patch

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Anna: of sky after the eclipse. And now this.

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This has genuinely been one of the best weeks

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of the year to just look up.

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Avery: Best week of the year. No notes.

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Anna: Storey 3 is a change of pace. This one's

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about keeping an eye on things a little

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closer to Earth in geostationary orbit.

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San Francisco based Astronis announced a new

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line of spacecraft yesterday called

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Perceptor. And its whole job is to monitor

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what other satellites are doing up there.

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Avery: So basically a satellite whose job is

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Anna: to watch other satellites pretty

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much geostationary orbit sits about

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22,236 miles up

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and it's genuinely valuable real estate.

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That's where a lot of communications,

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military and early warning satellites live.

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Because at uh, that altitude a uh, satellite

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orbits in sync with Earth's rotation and

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basically hovers over the same spot.

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Avery: Which also makes it a spot worth watching

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closely.

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Anna: Exactly. And that's the pitch here. Perceptor

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is built on astronauts existing microgeo

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satellite platform. So it's smaller than a

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uh, typical GEO spacecraft and it's loaded

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with sensors to assess other satellites and

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the environment around them. It uses electric

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propulsion which means it can reposition

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itself dozens of times over its mission life

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doing Multi angle flybys to actually

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inspect other satellites up close.

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Avery: Inspect in what sense though? Friendly

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satellites? Hostile ones? Both.

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Anna: Both, honestly. The company's framing it

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partly as a diagnostic tool flying past a

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friendly satellite to help troubleshoot an

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anomaly it's having, and partly as a security

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tool for keeping tabs on what other nations

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satellites are up to nearby.

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Avery: And I'm, um, guessing that second part is the

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real driver here.

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Anna: It's definitely front and centre in how

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they're pitching it. Astrana CEO John

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Gedmark put it pretty bluntly. There are

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blind spots that will be used against us, if

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not eliminated. And the announcement

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specifically points to a couple of past

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incidents. A Russian spacecraft that

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approached within about 100 miles of an

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American spy satellite back in 2020,

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and reports of Chinese reconnaissance

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activity near suspected US Space Force

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satellites in 2023.

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Avery: So this is very much a response to. Other

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countries are already doing this kind of

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close approach and we've had limited

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visibility into it.

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Anna: That's the argument. Astranis already

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operates five satellites in GEO

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supporting US military operations,

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remote connectivity and GPS related

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capabilities. So this isn't a totally new

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business for them. It's an extension into

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space domain awareness.

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Avery: Specifically, no launch date yet, I take

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it.

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Anna: No firm date announced yet, but worth

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watching, because if Perceptor works as

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advertised, it's a pretty significant shift

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in how much visibility commercial oper,

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not just government agencies, will have into

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what's happening in that orbital

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neighbourhood.

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Avery: Satellites watching satellites watching

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satellites. The future is a bit like a

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Anna: hall of mirrors, a very expensive

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hall of mirrors. 22,000 miles up,

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last storey today, and

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Avery: it's a nice one to close on.

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Mike Finke, one of NASA's most experienced

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astronauts, has retired after exactly three

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30 years with the agency.

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Anna: Thirty years is a serious career.

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Avery: It really is. Finke's a retired Air

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Force colonel who was selected as an

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astronaut back in 1996 as part of the

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astronaut class nicknamed the Sardines.

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Over his career, he became one of only 13

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people ever to have flown to orbit on three

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different types of spacecraft. And by the

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end, he'd actually flown on four separate

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vehicles across four missions. Twice on

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Soyuz, once on SpaceX shuttle Endeavour,

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and once on SpaceX's Crew Dragon

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Anna: Endeavour that spans basically the entire

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modern era of human spaceflight. Shuttle

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Soyuz and commercial crew, it really

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does.

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Avery: He commanded the International Space station

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twice across two different expeditions, more

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than 15 years apart. Expedition 18

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back in 2008, 2009, and then

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Expedition 74 just this past December. In

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January. He also spent time as chief of the

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Astronaut Office's Commercial Crew Branch and

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worked on developing the Starliner programme.

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Anna: And his most recent mission was Crew 11.

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Right, right.

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Avery: Launched in August of last year alongside

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Zena Cardman, JAXA's Kimiya Yui,

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and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platinov.

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And that mission actually ended early in

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January this year. Finke had a genuinely

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scary medical incident on board. He

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describes suddenly losing the ability to

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speak for about 20 minutes during dinner.

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Anna: That's frightening, especially in orbit.

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Avery: Genuinely frightening, he said. It came on

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completely out of the blue. M NASA brought

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him home early as a precaution, which is

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obviously exactly the right call.

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Anna: Good that he's alright and good that this

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send off is on his own terms, definitely.

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Avery: In his farewell statement, Finke said, After

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exactly 30 years, I am departing NASA,

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but I remain deeply committed to, among

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other things, helping prepare the next

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generation of explorers.

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Anna: Which feels like the right note for someone

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who's flown shuttle Soyuz and commercial

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Dragon to go out on a career that's

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basically a bridge between eras of

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spaceflight, handing things off to whoever

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flies next.

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Avery: A genuinely well earned retirement. Thank

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you for your service, Colonel Finke.

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Anna: Okay, that's our storeys for today.

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Quick recap. James Webb may have found the

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missing link in how supermassive black

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holes grow so fast in the early

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universe. A gas shrouded black

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hole star called Mom

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BH1. Glowing

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from just 660 million years

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after the Big Bang, the Perseid meteor

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shower delivered a spectacular peak

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overnight. Right on the heels of yesterday's

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eclipse, Astranis unveiled

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Perceptor, a new satellite built to

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keep watch over geostationary orbit.

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And veteran astronaut Mike Finke, uh,

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retired from NASA after 30

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remarkable years and four different

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spacecraft.

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Avery: If you enjoy today's episode, the best thing

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you can do for us is leave a rating or review

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wherever you're listening and share the

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episode with a fellow space nerd. You can

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find full show notes, sources and links for

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00:16:16.380 --> 00:16:18.140
every storey we cover today at

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00:16:18.140 --> 00:16:21.060
astronomydaily.IO and find us

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00:16:21.060 --> 00:16:24.020
on social media. We're AstroDailyPod

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00:16:24.020 --> 00:16:25.220
pretty much everywhere.

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Anna: We'll be back tomorrow with the weekend wrap.

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Until then, keep looking up.

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Avery: Clear skies everyone.

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Anna: Astronomy Day

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storeys. We told.