---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '21998'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: Little Red Dots (LRDs), among the most enigmatic high-redshift discoveries
    by JWST, are commonly believed to be powered by accreting supermassive black holes.
    Here, we explore the possibility that these sources are globular clusters in formation,
    with rest-frame UV arising from a very young stellar population and rest-frame
    optical from a short-lived supermassive (>104 M⊙) star. The spectral profiles
    of LRDs are broadly consistent with this scenario, though the observed temperatures
    and bolometric luminosities favor emission reprocessed by optically thick continuum-driven
    winds not fully captured by current models. The LRD z ∼ 5−7 UV luminosity function
    naturally evolves, under standard evolutionary and mass-loss prescriptions, into
    a present-day mass function with a turnover at log10(M*/M⊙) = 5.3 and an exponential
    cutoff at high masses, consistent with local globular cluster populations. We
    estimate the total present-day number density of LRDs formed across all redshifts
    to be ≈0.3 Mpc−3, similar within uncertainties to local globular clusters. The
    observed LRD redshift range matches the age distribution of metal-poor globular
    clusters, without current LRD counterparts to the metal-rich population. If LRDs
    are globular clusters in formation, we predict chemical abundance patterns characteristic
    of multiple stellar populations, including enhanced He and N, and potential Na–O
    and Al–Mg anticorrelations. These results offer a local perspective to explore
    this surprisingly abundant population of distant sources, and a potential new
    window into extreme stellar astrophysics in the early Universe.
acknowledgement: "We thank the referees for detailed and highly constructive reports
  that significantly improved the scope and breadth of the manuscript. J.C. thanks
  Hollis Akins, Volker Bromm, Rui Chaves-Marques, Steve Finkelstein, Karl Gebhardt,
  Keith Hawkins, Harley Katz, Stellar Offner, Daniel Schaerer, Grace Telford, and
  Jorick Vink for conversations that improved the Letter. A.d.G. acknowledges support
  from a Clay Fellowship awarded by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. M.B.K.
  acknowledges support from NSF grants AST-2108962 and AST-2408247; NASA grant 80NSSC22K0827;
  HST-GO-16686, HST-AR-17028, JWST-GO-03788, and JWST-AR-06278 from the Space Telescope
  Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555;
  and from the Samuel T. and Fern Yanagisawa Regents Professorship in Astronomy at
  UT Austin. A.A.C.S. acknowledges support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  (DFG, German Research Foundation) in the form of an Emmy Noether Research Group—Project-ID
  445674056 (SA4064/1-1, PI Sander). A.A.C.S. further acknowledges support from the
  Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) grant grants 50 OR 2509 (PI: A.A.C.
  Sander) and 50 OR 2306 (PI: V. Ramachandran/A.A.C. Sander) as well as from the Federal
  Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry
  of Science as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments.
  This project was cofunded by the European Union (Project 101183150—OCEANS).\r\n\r\nThis
  work is based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space
  Telescope. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes
  at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of
  Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for
  JWST. These observations are associated with programs 1180, 1181, 1208, 1212, 1213,
  1215, 1286, 1345, 1433, 2198, 2561, 2750, 2767, 4106, 4233, 5105, 5224, 6368, and
  6585."
article_number: L4
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: John
  full_name: Chisholm, John
  last_name: Chisholm
- first_name: Danielle A.
  full_name: Berg, Danielle A.
  last_name: Berg
- first_name: Michael
  full_name: Boylan-Kolchin, Michael
  last_name: Boylan-Kolchin
- first_name: Anna
  full_name: De Graaff, Anna
  last_name: De Graaff
- first_name: Lukas J.
  full_name: Furtak, Lukas J.
  last_name: Furtak
- first_name: Vasily
  full_name: Kokorev, Vasily
  last_name: Kokorev
- 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: Julian B.
  full_name: Muñoz, Julian B.
  last_name: Muñoz
- first_name: Rohan P.
  full_name: Naidu, Rohan P.
  last_name: Naidu
- first_name: Andreas A.C.
  full_name: Sander, Andreas A.C.
  last_name: Sander
citation:
  ama: Chisholm J, Berg DA, Boylan-Kolchin M, et al. Little Red Dots as globular clusters
    in formation. <i>The Astrophysical Journal Letters</i>. 2026;1004(1). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae">10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae</a>
  apa: Chisholm, J., Berg, D. A., Boylan-Kolchin, M., De Graaff, A., Furtak, L. J.,
    Kokorev, V., … Sander, A. A. C. (2026). Little Red Dots as globular clusters in
    formation. <i>The Astrophysical Journal Letters</i>. IOP Publishing. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae">https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae</a>
  chicago: Chisholm, John, Danielle A. Berg, Michael Boylan-Kolchin, Anna De Graaff,
    Lukas J. Furtak, Vasily Kokorev, Jorryt J Matthee, Julian B. Muñoz, Rohan P. Naidu,
    and Andreas A.C. Sander. “Little Red Dots as Globular Clusters in Formation.”
    <i>The Astrophysical Journal Letters</i>. IOP Publishing, 2026. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae">https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae</a>.
  ieee: J. Chisholm <i>et al.</i>, “Little Red Dots as globular clusters in formation,”
    <i>The Astrophysical Journal Letters</i>, vol. 1004, no. 1. IOP Publishing, 2026.
  ista: Chisholm J, Berg DA, Boylan-Kolchin M, De Graaff A, Furtak LJ, Kokorev V,
    Matthee JJ, Muñoz JB, Naidu RP, Sander AAC. 2026. Little Red Dots as globular
    clusters in formation. The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 1004(1), L4.
  mla: Chisholm, John, et al. “Little Red Dots as Globular Clusters in Formation.”
    <i>The Astrophysical Journal Letters</i>, vol. 1004, no. 1, L4, IOP Publishing,
    2026, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae">10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae</a>.
  short: J. Chisholm, D.A. Berg, M. Boylan-Kolchin, A. De Graaff, L.J. Furtak, V.
    Kokorev, J.J. Matthee, J.B. Muñoz, R.P. Naidu, A.A.C. Sander, The Astrophysical
    Journal Letters 1004 (2026).
date_created: 2026-06-14T22:01:42Z
date_published: 2026-06-10T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-06-19T09:50:33Z
day: '10'
ddc:
- '520'
department:
- _id: JoMa
doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2602.15935'
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fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ae6dae
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '      1004'
issue: '1'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '06'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
publication: The Astrophysical Journal Letters
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2041-8213
  issn:
  - 2041-8205
publication_status: published
publisher: IOP Publishing
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Little Red Dots as globular clusters in formation
tmp:
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  name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
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type: journal_article
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