Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have found the most distant (and thus the earliest) massive "dead" galaxy to date. The discovery suggests that galaxies were "dying" much earlier in the universe than previously believed.
"Death" for a galaxy refers to the slowing down, or even halting, of intense star formation, which stops a galaxy from growing. Such dead galaxies are more formally referred to as being "quiescent," or "quenched." Early dead galaxies seen by the JWST have been referred to as "red and dead" galaxies due to their lack of massive hot young blue stars and their abundance of old small red stars. They have also been dubbed "Little Red Dots" due to their appearance in JWST images.
