Meet Julian Shapiro, the New York student who found 3 unusual dwarf galaxies and won $25,000

For most people, a distant galaxy is just another faint smudge in the night sky. For Julian Shapiro, three such smudges became something much more interesting: possible evidence that some small galaxies can be stripped of their star-forming gas, pushed away from a larger galaxy and left isolated in space.

Shapiro, an 18-year-old from New York, discovered three nearby dwarf galaxies that appear to be both isolated and “quenched” — meaning they are no longer forming young stars. His research, titled “Discovery of Isolated, Quenched, and Likely Backsplash Dwarf Galaxies near M101,” earned him a $25,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship in 2026.

Shapiro's research suggests that the galaxies could be examples of something astronomers have predicted in simulations but have not yet confirmed in our local universe: backsplash galaxies.

Galaxies that shouldn't look like this

Dwarf galaxies are among the smallest galaxies known. Some orbit larger galaxies as satellites, while others exist farther away in relative isolation. Their environment matters.

According to Shapiro's research, isolated dwarf galaxies are generally expected to continue forming stars because they have not passed close enough to a massive galaxy to have their gas stripped away.

The three galaxies he identified appear to break that expectation. They are isolated, yet they lack the young stars associated with ongoing star formation.

That raises an intriguing possibility. Perhaps these galaxies aren't truly isolated in the sense astronomers originally assumed. Instead, they may have once passed close to a much larger galaxy.

During that encounter, the larger galaxy's environment could have stripped away the smaller galaxy's star-forming gas. The dwarf galaxy could then have moved back out into a more isolated region.

That is where the term “backsplash” comes in.

What is a backsplash galaxy?

Imagine throwing a ball toward a wall and watching it bounce back. A backsplash galaxy is somewhat similar — although the physics is far more complicated.

These galaxies are expected to have once traveled close to a massive host galaxy before moving outward again. During their passage, interactions with the host's environment can alter the smaller galaxy, including removing some of the gas needed to form new stars.

The result could be a dwarf galaxy that now appears isolated but carries the consequences of an earlier encounter.

Astronomers have predicted such galaxies through cosmological simulations. The challenge has been finding convincing examples in the real universe.

Shapiro's three candidates could provide an opportunity to test that prediction.

The research involved considerably more than examining telescope images. Shapiro analyzed the physical properties of dwarf galaxies, worked with cosmological simulations and developed methods for estimating how many dwarf galaxies should exist around larger galaxies.

One of the hardest parts was determining the galaxies' distances. Distance is crucial because a dwarf galaxy's apparent isolation depends partly on where it actually sits in three-dimensional space. Shapiro initially tried to estimate distance using the brightness distribution of the galaxies' stars as a type of **“standard candle.” He eventually moved to another technique based on 'surface-brightness fluctuations', which he considered a more robust measurement for his work.

The project also required him to learn coding, galaxy-halo modeling and techniques used in astrophysical research.

A telescope archive helped reveal the clues

One of the striking aspects of Shapiro's work is that the discovery did not necessarily require a brand-new space telescope pointed specifically at these galaxies. Instead, he used publicly available archival telescope data.

That matters because astronomical archives contain enormous amounts of information collected for previous observations. For researchers who know what to look for, those datasets can become a source of new discoveries long after the original observations were made.

Shapiro's work argues that young researchers can use these resources to investigate questions that go beyond what is normally taught in school.

His paper has also been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, according to his Davidson Fellows profile.

The timing could be important

Shapiro's research may become even more useful as new astronomical surveys begin producing huge quantities of data.

He specifically points to the upcoming Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which is expected to dramatically expand observations of the night sky.

If Shapiro's approach is correct, future surveys could uncover many more potential backsplash galaxies. That would allow astronomers to ask a much bigger question: Do the galaxies predicted by cosmological simulations actually exist in the numbers and locations that theory expects?

His work could therefore serve as a way of testing models of galaxy formation rather than simply adding three more objects to an astronomical catalogue.

From astronomy club to astrophysics research

Shapiro's interest in astronomy developed alongside activities such as astrophotography, stargazing and an astronomy club he helped start. He also launched a podcast focused on scientific communication.

His research interests now extend beyond dwarf galaxies. He has worked on subjects including the eROSITA bubbles and stellar evolution and is part of the MDW Sky Survey team at Columbia University.

He has also been awarded the National Young Astronomer Award and served as principal investigator for a 94-hour telescope imaging program.

This fall, Shapiro is set to study astrophysics at UC Berkeley, where he plans to research the Hubble tension, the longstanding discrepancy between different measurements of the universe's expansion rate.