Engineering dropout at 18 to Harvard PhD: Meet Rohan Naidu, 'black hole star' finder

A Hyderabad-born astronomer has led a JWST study of MoM-BH-1, an unusual early-universe object. The finding may offer clues to rapid black hole growth and the Little Red Dots puzzle.A Hyderabad-born astronomer is at the centre of a new discovery that could give scientists a closer look at how some of the universe’s earliest black holes formed and grew.Rohan P Naidu, an astrophysicist who left engineering at 18 and turned to Harvard for a Phd, whose research focuses on the first galaxies and black holes, is the lead author of a study on MoM-BH-1*, an unusual object observed from a time when the universe was less than 700 million years old.The object, studied using observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), does not fit neatly into the usual categories of stars or galaxies.Researchers believe it could be a “black hole star”, a massive black hole surrounded by an extremely dense layer of gas that makes the system appear bright and star-like. FROM HYDERABAD TO THE EARLY UNIVERSENaidu’s own route into astronomy has been unusual.He grew up in Hyderabad and left engineering school at the age of 18 before joining the founding class of Yale-NUS College in Singapore. He later completed a PhD in astronomy at Harvard University in 2022, working under astronomer Charlie Conroy. His research has focused on the earliest galaxies, stars and black holes, combining observations of the distant universe with what astronomers call “galactic archaeology”, studying ancient stellar systems within the Milky Way to understand its history.At MIT, Naidu was a NASA Hubble Fellow from 2022 to 2025 and a Pappalardo Fellow in Physics from 2025 to 2027. MIT lists his research area as observational and experimental astrophysics, with a focus on the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang.He has since continued his research in astrophysics at the University of Hawaii.His path has already included work on some of the earliest known galaxies. In 2022, he was among the researchers involved in the discovery of the early galaxy GLASS-z13, highlighting his long-standing focus on the universe’s first stages.A STRANGLE OBJECT FROM THE YOUNG UNIVERSEThe study by Rohan and the young team has drawn attention because such an object could offer a possible explanation for one of JWST’s biggest early-universe puzzles: the mysterious population of compact, red objects known as “Little Red Dots” (LRDs).MoM-BH*-1 was observed at a redshift of about 7.76, meaning astronomers are seeing it as it existed roughly 660 million years after the Big Bang.What caught researchers’ attention was its unusual spectrum. The object showed an exceptionally strong Balmer break, broad and complex hydrogen emission and absorption features. Its light also appeared unusually red and bright compared with what would be expected from a normal stellar population.The observations made it difficult to explain the object simply as a conventional early galaxy or a collection of stars.Instead, Naidu and his colleagues modelled the source as a black hole surrounded by very dense, turbulent gas. In this picture, the black hole is feeding on surrounding material, while the gas forms an envelope around it and changes the way its radiation appears to distant observers.The researchers describe the proposed object as a black hole star, or BH*. The name can be misleading: it is not a normal star with a black hole inside it.Scientists are still testing the interpretation, so the finding does not establish that a completely new class of object has been definitively discovered.The Naidu-led study suggests that MoM-BH*-1 may represent a stage in which a black hole is growing rapidly while hidden inside a thick gas environment. The conditions could allow the black hole to accrete matter at rates above the conventional limit used in many standard growth models.THE 'LITTLE RED DOT' CONNECTIONThe discovery also adds to the growing debate over the Little Red Dots, a population of compact.Naidu’s earlier work proposed that at least some of these objects could be explained by black-hole-star systems embedded within host galaxies.A 2026 study involving Naidu and colleagues went further, examining hundreds of candidate objects and arguing that black-hole-star templates can account for a significant part of the observed population of Little Red Dots.The researchers identified 241 black-hole-star-dominated candidates from JWST imaging covering about 1,000 square arcminutes.If further observations confirm the model, the discovery could help connect two major puzzles in modern astronomy, the rapid appearance of massive black holes and the growing population of mysterious Little Red Dots seen by JWST.For Naidu and the wider astronomy community, the significance of MoM-BH*-1 may therefore extend well beyond one unusual object. It could provide a rare glimpse of a stage in black-hole growth that existed when the universe was still in its infancy.- EndsPublished By: Rishab ChauhanPublished On: Aug 18, 2026 15:02 IST