Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a new red galaxy at a redshift of approximately 11.45. The newfound galaxy, which received designation EGS-z11-R0, turns out to be the most distant red galaxy detected to date. The discovery was detailed in a paper published March 18 on the arXiv pre-print server.

High-redshift galaxies (with redshifts above 10.0) identified by JWST, therefore when the universe was only a few hundred million years old, are predominantly characterized by extremely blue rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) slopes. This is due to the fact that they are composed of very young, massive stars that emit intense UV light, with minimal dust attenuation.

However, recent observations have revealed the existence of a small population of high-redshift red galaxies, therefore exhibiting significantly redder UV continua. It is assumed that these galaxies are already full of dust and mature stars.