The Discovery of Little Red Dots in the Local Universe: Signatures of Cool Gas Envelopes

Understand

JWST observations have revealed a population of high-redshift "little red dots" (LRDs) that challenge conventional AGN models.

• We report the discovery of three local LRDs at $z = 0.1$-$0.2$, initially selected from the SDSS database, with follow-up optical/near-IR spectroscopy and photometry.
• They exhibit properties fully consistent with those of high-redshift LRDs, including broad hydrogen and helium emission lines, compact morphologies, V-shaped UV-optical SED, declining near-IR continua, and no significant variability.
• Two sources were targeted but not detected in X-rays with statistical significance.