From Engineering to Deep Space: Astronomer Rohan Naidu and the ‘Black Hole Star’ Discovery

Leaving behind a traditional engineering track at age 18, Hyderabad-born astronomer Rohan Naidu took an unconventional path that ultimately led to groundbreaking research on the early universe. After moving to Singapore to join the inaugural class of Yale-NUS College, Naidu shifted his focus to astrophysics, embarking on a career that now explores the origins of cosmic structures.

Academic Journey and Early Career

• Undergraduate Studies: Discovered astronomy at Yale-NUS while researching blazars with astronomer Charles Bailyn, complemented by research with the Pieter van Dokkum group at Yale.
• Doctoral Research: Completed his Ph.D. in Astronomy at Harvard University in 2022 under Charlie Conroy, specializing in “Galactic Archaeology” by reconstructing the Milky Way’s history through stellar structures.
• Postdoctoral Fellowships: Awarded both the NASA Hubble Fellowship and the MIT Pappalardo Fellowship in Physics (2025–2027), before joining the University of Hawaiʻi’s Institute for Astronomy.

The ‘Black Hole Star’ Interpretation: MoM-BH-1*

Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Naidu and his collaborators identified an unusually vibrant red object designated as MoM-BH-1* at a redshift of approximately 7.76—reflecting an era when the universe was under 700 million years old.

• Key Observations: The source displayed an extraordinarily strong Balmer break along with broad hydrogen emission and absorption features, making it the reddest object in its observed field.
• Proposed Mechanism: The team hypothesized that MoM-BH-1* could be a “black hole star”—a massive, accreting black hole encased within a dense, radiant cocoon of gas that absorbs and reprocesses radiation.
• Scientific Significance: This gas-enshrouded model offers a potential framework for explaining the puzzling “little red dots” detected by JWST and addresses how supermassive black holes grew so rapidly in the early universe.

Earlier Research and Personal Background

Prior to this work, Naidu contributed to significant early-universe discoveries using JWST, including research on the high-redshift galaxy GLASS-z13 in 2022. Outside of astrophysics, Naidu is a quiz enthusiast, published poet, and avid Test cricket fan.