The Phantom Galaxy (M74) has been imaged in infrared and optical light using the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope. The spiral galaxy is about 32 million light-years from Earth. Credit: Space.

A cosmic object spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope has flummoxed astronomers. Now, a research team has studied hundreds of these "little red dots" and found clues about their identity.

When Pagan and DePasquale first receive the images, they appear in black and white. The colors are added to the image later, as the data from the various filters are translated into the spectrum of visible light, Pagan explained. The longest wavelengths appear red, while the shorter wavelengths are blue or purple.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured the first exquisite images of an interstellar patch of sky, about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia.