Two objects that were thought to be the oldest galaxies in the universe turned out to be cold, dead stars in our own backyard.
April 29, 2026
Original Paper
Two Exciting High-redshift Galaxy Candidates Turn Out to Be Two Exciting Ultra-cool Brown Dwarfs
arXiv · 2604.23668
The Takeaway
Two Little Red Dots looked exactly like galaxies from the very dawn of time, but they were actually cold, failed stars lurking within our own galaxy. Detailed follow-up showed they are ultra-cool brown dwarfs that share nearly identical signatures with distant red-shifted galaxies in the infrared. This cosmic mistaken identity warns researchers that our maps of the early universe might be contaminated by local objects. It highlights the extreme difficulty of telling the difference between the most distant things in existence and the ones right next door.
From the abstract
From the onset of observations of JWST we have discovered unexpectedly luminous galaxies at redshifts $z>10$ and as high as $z=14$. With their discovery, the question immediately followed as to where their progenitors are, since such progenitors should be within reach of existing surveys. However, the discovery of several bright candidates at $z>15$ may indicate further discrepancies between pre-JWST model predictions and current observations. Progenitors of the bright $z\sim 14$ galaxies should