# 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

Source: [Earth.com](https://www.earth.com/space/capotauro-webb-galaxy-candidate-brown-dwarf/) · 2026-11-13 · Earth & Climate
Page: https://themorning.science/story/a-strange-red-speck-captured-by-webb-looked-like-a-candidate-for-the-earliest-ga-6a42dc03c6db8b82
Kind: research · Impact: medium

## In 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.

## Timeline

- 2022-12-01: James Webb Space Telescope photographs a strip of sky for the CEERS survey and records the compact red point
- 2026-11-13: Earth.com reports that the latest analysis identifies the object as a brown dwarf in the Milky Way

## Coverage

- [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](https://www.earth.com/space/capotauro-webb-galaxy-candidate-brown-dwarf/) — Earth.com, 2026-11-13

Tags: james webb, brown dwarf, early galaxies, ceers, astronomy

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Science – https://themorning.science