Research
A strange red speck captured by Webb looked like a candidate for the earliest galaxy ever seen, but now it seems to be moving like a brown dwarf
Earth.com · By Adrian Villellas ·
The Brief
- A red compact point photographed by Webb in December 2022 during the CEERS survey was once a candidate for the earliest galaxy seen.
- Latest analysis indicates the object is a brown dwarf inside the Milky Way rather than a distant galaxy.
- Astronomers later named the object Capotauro.
Why it matters
Early-galaxy candidates from Webb imaging can be contaminated by nearby cool stars and brown dwarfs, so reclassifying one changes how reliably distant galaxies are identified in deep surveys.
Who’s affected
- astronomers studying early galaxies and deep-field surveys
- researchers using JWST imaging data
- #james webb
- #brown dwarf
- #early galaxies
- #ceers
- #astronomy
In December 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope photographed a strip of sky for the CEERS survey and recorded a compact red point that, according to the latest analysis, is a brown dwarf inside the Milky Way. Astronomers later named the point Capotauro and calculated that its…
Timeline
James Webb Space Telescope photographs a strip of sky for the CEERS survey and records the compact red point
Earth.com reports that the latest analysis identifies the object as a brown dwarf in the Milky Way
Earth.com
A strange red speck captured by Webb looked like a candidate for the earliest galaxy ever seen, but now it seems to be moving like a brown dwarf