Arizona State University Assistant Research Scientist Tim Carleton and his team of astronomers made an unexpected discovery while using the James Webb Space Telescope. They stumbled upon a dwarf galaxy that was not the primary focus of their observation. This finding challenges our current understanding of the dwarf galaxy population, particularly the “ultra-diffuse galaxies” that were previously beyond the reach of large spectroscopic surveys.
The team’s initial goal was to study a cluster of galaxies as part of the JWST Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS) project. However, during their observations, they noticed the appearance of a dwarf galaxy, PEARLSDG, in the JWST imaging. This unexpected sighting has led to the publication of their results in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
2024-02-04 18:00:05
Link from phys.org