Posted on by Evan Gough

The JWST Discovers a Galaxy That Shouldn’t Exist

The JWST captured this image of an unusual quiescent dwarf galaxy in the background of separate observations. Image Credit: Carleton et al. 2024

Astronomers working with the JWST found a dwarf galaxy they weren’t looking for. It’s about 98 million years away, has no neighbours, and was in the background of an image of other galaxies. This isolated galaxy shows a lack of star-formation activity, which is very unusual for an isolated dwarf.

Most isolated dwarf galaxies form stars, according to a wealth of observations. What’s different about this one?

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Posted on by Evan Gough

Galaxies Breathe Gas, and When They Stop, No More Stars Form

Artist concept of how a galaxy might accrete mass from rapid, narrow streams of cold gas. These filaments provide the galaxy with continuous flows of raw material to feed its star-forming at a rather leisurely pace. Credit: ESA–AOES Medialab

For most of the history of astronomy, all we could see were stars. We could see them individually, in clusters, in nebulae, and in fuzzy blobs that we thought were clumps of stars but were actually galaxies. The thing is, most of what’s out there is much harder to see than stars and galaxies. It’s gas.

Now that astronomers can see gas better than ever, we can see how galaxies breathe it in and out. When they stop breathing it, stars stop forming.

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