Pierluigi Rinaldi discovered an early-Universe object he named 'Virgil', together with another object he named 'Cerberus', naming Virgil after a character in Dante's The Divine Comedy.
Notes on verification
Directly confirmed by Rinaldi's own quote, corroborated by the peer-reviewed discovery paper (Iani, Rinaldi et al. 2025, ApJ) and independent science journalism (Sky at Night, Scientific American, University of Arizona News). Naming logic and co-discovery relationship are consistent across all sources.
Sources
- A scientist looked at 'little red dots' in the early Universe and found a black hole that shouldn't exist | BBC Sky at Night Magazine (skyatnightmagazine.com)
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-are-jwsts-little-red-dots-astronomers-may-finally-have-an-answer/ (scientificamerican.com)
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ade5a6 (iopscience.iop.org)
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.18207 (arxiv.org)
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.16942 (arxiv.org)
- https://news.arizona.edu/news/monster-hiding-plain-sight-jwst-reveals-cosmic-shapeshifter-early-universe (news.arizona.edu)