Rohan Naidu’s Journey From Engineering to Astronomer: Inside the Puzzling ‘Black Hole Star’ Discovery Reshaping Our View of the Early Universe

Think about being 18, enrolled in engineering faculty and anticipated to observe a reasonably predictable path. Then think about strolling away from it. That’s what Rohan Naidu did.

He left engineering at 18, purchased his first-ever aircraft ticket and joined the founding class of Yale-NUS School in Singapore. Even Naidu’s personal MIT biography describes the choice as a “Bollywood-esque plot twist.”

In the present day, the Hyderabad-born astronomer research a few of the earliest galaxies and black holes within the universe. And his newest work has taken him to a very unusual nook of the cosmos — a mysterious object known as MoM-BH-1*, which can signify what astronomers are calling a “black gap star.”

From engineering to the celebs: Naidu grew up in Hyderabad and initially enrolled in engineering. However engineering wasn’t the place his curiosity stayed.

At Yale-NUS, he found astronomy whereas engaged on blazars — terribly brilliant objects powered by matter falling into supermassive black holes — with astronomer Charles Bailyn. He additionally frolicked as an alternate pupil working with researchers related to Yale’s Pieter van Dokkum group. The swap grew to become everlasting.

Naidu went on to Harvard, the place he accomplished his PhD in Astronomy in 2022 underneath Charlie Conroy. His doctoral analysis centered on “Galactic Archaeology” — utilizing the celebs and constructions within the Milky Technique to reconstruct the historical past of historic galaxies that have been absorbed into our personal.

Then got here the early universe.

Naidu’s analysis now focuses on a few of the first galaxies that shaped after the Large Bang. Meaning wanting extremely far-off is, in a way, wanting extremely far again in time.

His MIT profile says his work examines when the primary galaxies emerged, how they affected the hydrogen between galaxies and the way they produced the weather that finally helped seed the universe. He has additionally been among the many early customers of the James Webb House Telescope, finding out galaxies at excessive distances.

The JWST has opened a exceptional window into that interval. And thru it, astronomers have discovered one thing they didn’t fairly know what to make of.

It was recognized in JWST observations as a very pink and strange object at a redshift of about 7.76, that means we’re seeing it from a time when the universe was lower than 700 million years previous. Naidu and his collaborators reported the article in a 2025 analysis preprint. It stood out instantly.

The article confirmed an unusually sturdy Balmer break, broad hydrogen emission and absorption options which can be tough to elucidate with an atypical inhabitants of stars. It was additionally the reddest supply within the roughly 250-square-arcminute area during which it was recognized. And that’s the place the story will get unusual.

Is it a star? A black gap? One thing in between?

Naidu and his collaborators proposed that MoM-BH*-1 may very well be a “black gap star” — basically a large black gap surrounded by an especially dense cocoon of gasoline. The black gap would energy the article via accretion, whereas the encompassing gasoline would take in and reprocess its radiation, making the entire thing seem remarkably star-like.

Consider it as a black gap hidden inside a big glowing environment. The researchers’ modelling suggests this might clarify the article’s uncommon spectrum and will provide a approach of understanding the mysterious “little pink dots” that JWST has repeatedly discovered within the early universe.

However there is a crucial caveat. “Black gap star” is a scientific mannequin or proposed interpretation, not a settled new class of astronomical object. Different researchers proceed to discover competing explanations for these unusual early-universe sources. The existence and nature of the phenomenon are nonetheless lively areas of analysis.

As a result of there’s a cosmic downside hiding beneath the invention. Astronomers have discovered proof for surprisingly large black holes very early within the universe. However how did they develop so rapidly?

The universe merely could not have had a lot time to construct billion-solar-mass black holes via the atypical pathways we perceive as we speak.

That’s the place objects like MoM-BH*-1 develop into fascinating.

Naidu’s analysis suggests {that a} dense, gas-enshrouded black gap might signify an early stage within the progress of the large black holes that finally sit on the centres of galaxies. The thought might additionally assist clarify why JWST retains discovering these puzzling little pink dots.

A thriller that seemed like an odd assortment of pink specks may very well be giving astronomers clues about how a few of the universe’s largest black holes started.

The “black gap star” is just one chapter in Naidu’s broader work. Earlier than this analysis, he was concerned in research of a few of the earliest galaxies noticed by JWST, together with work on the high-redshift galaxy GLASS-z13. Yale-NUS notes that Naidu was among the many astronomers concerned in its discovery in 2022.

His tutorial path has additionally taken him via the NASA Hubble Fellowship and the MIT Pappalardo Fellowship in Physics. MIT presently lists him as a Pappalardo Fellow for 2025–2027, with astrophysics as his analysis space. He has since moved on from his MIT fellowship interval to the College of Hawaiʻi’s Institute for Astronomy, the place his work continues to deal with the early universe.

After which there’s the much less cosmic aspect of Rohan Naidu. MIT’s biography describes him as a quiz and trivia fanatic, printed poet and Take a look at cricket fan. Which makes the story reasonably splendidly human. A boy from Hyderabad left engineering at 18. He purchased a aircraft ticket. He went on the lookout for one thing he could not but identify. Years later, he’s serving to astronomers look billions of years into the previous — at objects so unusual that scientists are nonetheless debating precisely what they’re.

The universe, it seems, has loads of mysteries left. And Rohan Naidu is wanting straight at them.

(With inputs from yMedia and businesses)