---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '21715'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: New populations of red active galactic nuclei (known as “little red dots”)
discovered by JWST exhibit remarkable spectral energy distributions. Leveraging
X-ray through far-infrared observations of two of the most luminous known little
red dots, we directly measure their bolometric luminosities. We find evidence
that more than half of the bolometric luminosity likely emerges in the rest-frame
optical, with Lbol/L5100 = 5, roughly half the value for “standard” active galactic
nuclei. Meanwhile, the X-ray emitting corona, UV-emitting blackbody, and reprocessed
mid to far-infrared emission are all considerably subdominant, assuming that the
far-infrared luminosity is well below current measured limits. We present new
bolometric corrections that dramatically lower inferred bolometric luminosities
by a factor of 10 compared to published values in the literature. These bolometric
corrections are in accord with expectations from models in which gas absorption
and reprocessing are responsible for the red rest-frame optical colors of little
red dots. We discuss how this lowered luminosity scale suggests a lower mass scale
for the population by at least an order of magnitude (e.g., ∼105–107 M⊙ black
holes, and ∼108 M⊙ galaxies), alleviating tensions with clustering, overmassive
black holes, and the integrated black hole mass density in the Universe.
acknowledgement: "We benefit from the following JWST programs: UNCOVER (JWST/GO #2561;
Labbé & Bezanson); ALT (JWST-GO #3516; Naidu & Matthee); MegaScience (JWST-GO #4111;
Suess); RUBIES (JWST-GO #4233; de Graaff & Brammer); PRIMER (JWST/GO #1837; Dunlop).\r\n\r\nWe
acknowledge funding from NSF/AAG #2306950, JWST-GO-02561, JWST-GO-03516, and JWST-GO-04111,
provided through a grant from the STScI under NASA contract NAS5-03127. I.L. acknowledges
support from Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT220100798. K.G. and
T.N. acknowledge support from Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship FL180100060.
A.Z. acknowledges support by grant No. 2020750 from the United States-Israel Binational
Science Foundation (BSF) and grant No. 2109066 from the United States National Science
Foundation (NSF); by the Ministry of Science & Technology, Israel; and by the Israel
Science Foundation grant No. 864/23. J.M. and I.K. are funded by the European Union
(ERC, AGENTS, 101076224). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the
author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the
European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority
can be held responsible for them. Y.F. acknowledges support from JSPS KAKENHI grant
No. JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. JP22K21349 and JP23K13149. This work has received funding
from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under
contract No. MB22.00072, as well as from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
through project grant 200020_207349. The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) is funded by
the Danish National Research Foundation under grant DNRF140. Support for this work
for RPN was provided by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF2-51515.001-A
awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association
of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555.
The work of CCW is supported by NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with
the National Science Foundation. J.M. acknowledges funding by the European Union
(ERC, AGENTS, 101076224). R.E.H. acknowledges support by the German Aerospace Center
(DLR) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) through program
50OR2403 “RUBIES.”"
article_number: '129'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Jenny E.
full_name: Greene, Jenny E.
last_name: Greene
- first_name: David J.
full_name: Setton, David J.
last_name: Setton
- first_name: Lukas J.
full_name: Furtak, Lukas J.
last_name: Furtak
- first_name: Rohan P.
full_name: Naidu, Rohan P.
last_name: Naidu
- first_name: Marta
full_name: Volonteri, Marta
last_name: Volonteri
- first_name: Pratika
full_name: Dayal, Pratika
last_name: Dayal
- first_name: Ivo
full_name: Labbe, Ivo
last_name: Labbe
- first_name: Pieter
full_name: Van Dokkum, Pieter
last_name: Van Dokkum
- first_name: Rachel
full_name: Bezanson, Rachel
last_name: Bezanson
- first_name: Gabriel
full_name: Brammer, Gabriel
last_name: Brammer
- first_name: Sam E.
full_name: Cutler, Sam E.
last_name: Cutler
- first_name: Karl
full_name: Glazebrook, Karl
last_name: Glazebrook
- first_name: Anna
full_name: De Graaff, Anna
last_name: De Graaff
- first_name: Michaela
full_name: Hirschmann, Michaela
last_name: Hirschmann
- first_name: Raphael E.
full_name: Hviding, Raphael E.
last_name: Hviding
- first_name: Vasily
full_name: Kokorev, Vasily
last_name: Kokorev
- first_name: Joel
full_name: Leja, Joel
last_name: Leja
- first_name: Hanpu
full_name: Liu, Hanpu
last_name: Liu
- first_name: Yilun
full_name: Ma, Yilun
last_name: Ma
- first_name: Jorryt J
full_name: Matthee, Jorryt J
id: 7439a258-f3c0-11ec-9501-9df22fe06720
last_name: Matthee
orcid: 0000-0003-2871-127X
- first_name: Themiya
full_name: Nanayakkara, Themiya
last_name: Nanayakkara
- first_name: Pascal A.
full_name: Oesch, Pascal A.
last_name: Oesch
- first_name: Richard
full_name: Pan, Richard
last_name: Pan
- first_name: Sedona H.
full_name: Price, Sedona H.
last_name: Price
- first_name: Justin S.
full_name: Spilker, Justin S.
last_name: Spilker
- first_name: Bingjie
full_name: Wang, Bingjie
last_name: Wang
- first_name: John R.
full_name: Weaver, John R.
last_name: Weaver
- first_name: Katherine E.
full_name: Whitaker, Katherine E.
last_name: Whitaker
- first_name: Christina C.
full_name: Williams, Christina C.
last_name: Williams
- first_name: Adi
full_name: Zitrin, Adi
last_name: Zitrin
citation:
ama: 'Greene JE, Setton DJ, Furtak LJ, et al. What you see is what you get: Empirically
measured bolometric luminosities of Little Red Dots. The Astrophysical Journal.
2026;996(2). doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae1836'
apa: 'Greene, J. E., Setton, D. J., Furtak, L. J., Naidu, R. P., Volonteri, M.,
Dayal, P., … Zitrin, A. (2026). What you see is what you get: Empirically measured
bolometric luminosities of Little Red Dots. The Astrophysical Journal.
IOP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae1836'
chicago: 'Greene, Jenny E., David J. Setton, Lukas J. Furtak, Rohan P. Naidu, Marta
Volonteri, Pratika Dayal, Ivo Labbe, et al. “What You See Is What You Get: Empirically
Measured Bolometric Luminosities of Little Red Dots.” The Astrophysical Journal.
IOP Publishing, 2026. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae1836.'
ieee: 'J. E. Greene et al., “What you see is what you get: Empirically measured
bolometric luminosities of Little Red Dots,” The Astrophysical Journal,
vol. 996, no. 2. IOP Publishing, 2026.'
ista: 'Greene JE, Setton DJ, Furtak LJ, Naidu RP, Volonteri M, Dayal P, Labbe I,
Van Dokkum P, Bezanson R, Brammer G, Cutler SE, Glazebrook K, De Graaff A, Hirschmann
M, Hviding RE, Kokorev V, Leja J, Liu H, Ma Y, Matthee JJ, Nanayakkara T, Oesch
PA, Pan R, Price SH, Spilker JS, Wang B, Weaver JR, Whitaker KE, Williams CC,
Zitrin A. 2026. What you see is what you get: Empirically measured bolometric
luminosities of Little Red Dots. The Astrophysical Journal. 996(2), 129.'
mla: 'Greene, Jenny E., et al. “What You See Is What You Get: Empirically Measured
Bolometric Luminosities of Little Red Dots.” The Astrophysical Journal,
vol. 996, no. 2, 129, IOP Publishing, 2026, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae1836.'
short: J.E. Greene, D.J. Setton, L.J. Furtak, R.P. Naidu, M. Volonteri, P. Dayal,
I. Labbe, P. Van Dokkum, R. Bezanson, G. Brammer, S.E. Cutler, K. Glazebrook,
A. De Graaff, M. Hirschmann, R.E. Hviding, V. Kokorev, J. Leja, H. Liu, Y. Ma,
J.J. Matthee, T. Nanayakkara, P.A. Oesch, R. Pan, S.H. Price, J.S. Spilker, B.
Wang, J.R. Weaver, K.E. Whitaker, C.C. Williams, A. Zitrin, The Astrophysical
Journal 996 (2026).
date_created: 2026-04-12T22:01:50Z
date_published: 2026-01-10T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-05-04T11:20:42Z
day: '10'
ddc:
- '520'
department:
- _id: JoMa
doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae1836
external_id:
arxiv:
- '2509.05434'
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language:
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month: '01'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
project:
- _id: bd9b2118-d553-11ed-ba76-db24564edfea
grant_number: '101076224'
name: Young galaxies as tracers and agents of cosmic reionization
publication: The Astrophysical Journal
publication_identifier:
eissn:
- 1538-4357
issn:
- 0004-637X
publication_status: published
publisher: IOP Publishing
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: 'What you see is what you get: Empirically measured bolometric luminosities
of Little Red Dots'
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