UNCOVER-z12
UNCOVER-z12 is a high-redshift Lyman-break galaxy discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope during NIRCam imaging for the JWST Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam Observations before the Epoch of Reionization project in November 2023. UNCOVER-z12 is within the Abell 2744 supercluster in the constellation Sculptor. It is the 8th-most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy ever discovered as of 2025, and is estimated to be 32.21 giga-lightyears from Earth.
Morphology
UNCOVER-z12 is a Lyman-Break galaxy. Due to the recent discovery date, not much more is known about the galaxy itself.Discovery
UNCOVER-z12 was first observed when large amounts of gravitational lensing from Abell 2744 made the galaxy visible. Abell 2744 is around 3.5 billion light-years away from the Milky Way.The gravity of Abell 2744 warps the fabric of space-time sufficiently to magnify the light of more faraway galaxies. The James Webb Space Telescope used the gravitational lensing to discover UNCOVER-z12, and further studies of deep galaxies located within Abell 2744 are currently ongoing.