They appeared to house supermassive black holes that were far more massive than they had any right to be. But now a new study published in Nature suggests a solution to the Little Red Dots mystery. Scientists think young supermassive black holes may go through a “cocoon phase,” where they grow surrounded by high-density gas they feed on. These gaseous cocoons are likely what the JWST saw as the Little Red Dots. For decades, astronomers have observed a consistent relationship between a galaxy and its central supermassive black hole: Usually, the black hole accounts for about 0.1 percent of the galaxy’s total mass.