Ep. 769: Little Red Dots

Astronomy Cast

Science, Astronomy, Natural Sciences, Space

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Astronomy Cast Ep. 769: Little Red Dots

By Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay

Streamed live on Oct 20, 2025.

New instruments bring new mysteries, and when James Webb came on line it uncovered a collection of strange, compact, bright objects shifted deeply into the red end of the spectrum. These were dubbed "Little red dots" or LRDs. And the astronomical community continues to puzzle over what they are. When JWST first peered into the distant past, it discovered the early universe had a rash of little red dots. Their existence just 450 million years after the big bang meant either galaxies were forming way faster than anyone predicted, or something unimagined had been found.

This show is supported through people like you on Patreon.com/AstronomyCast

In this episode, we'd like to thank: Andrew Poelstra, BogieNet, Brian Cagle, Burry Gowen, David, David Rossetter, David Truog, Ed, Gerhard Schwarzer, Jason Kwong, Jeanette Wink, Michael Purcell, Olger, Sergio Sancevero, Sergey Manouilov, Siggi Kemmler, Stephen Veit

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Astronomycast, Episode 769, Little Red Dots.
0:53.5	Welcome to Astronomycast from weekly facts-based journey through the cosmos, where we hope you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know. I'm Fraser Kane. I'm the publisher of the universe today. With me, as always, it's Dr. Pamela, Kay, a senior scientist for the Planetary Science Institute and the director of Cosmo Quest. Hey, Pamela, how are you doing? I am doing well. It is the most glorious of falls here in Southern Illinois.
1:15.1	The leaves are falling. The sun is out. It is hoodie weather. I am happy.
1:21.3	And Halloween is almost upon us.
1:25.2	So are you ready to feel a little bit self-conscious?
1:30.9	I guess. So I was interviewing one of my patrons and the patrons said, hey, did you ever notice that Pamela says, I, I am doing very
1:36.0	well? I'm like, no, you just did it. So apparently, every time I ask you how you're doing,
1:42.2	you say, I, I am doing very well.
1:46.6	That's all right.
1:47.9	I have habits.
1:49.2	Yeah.
1:49.9	Yeah.
1:50.2	Crazy.
1:50.9	Like you just like, buy the numbers.
1:52.5	You did it exactly on.
1:53.8	And so I had to bring it up.
1:55.4	But the funny thing is that when we started doing this podcast, you actually asked me how I was doing.
2:02.0	Yeah.
2:02.6	And I had to give the answer every time.
2:04.6	And I hated it.
2:05.8	And people made compilations of you asking me how it was doing and me answering it all just sounding exactly the same.
2:12.5	And so at some point, I just flipped it on you.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Astronomy Cast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Astronomy Cast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.