A Student Finds Three Galaxies and Possibly Solves a Mystery

What happened

Julian Shapiro, an astrophysics student at the University of California, Berkeley, found strange dwarf galaxies in the vicinity of the large spiral M101 while doing research into their star formation rates as a high school student. Julian Shapiro, currently an astrophysics student at the University of California, Berkeley, found strange dwarf galaxies in the vicinity of the large spiral M101 while doing research into their star formation rates as a high school student.

It's not too often that a high school student-turned undergraduate gets three galaxies named after him, especially ones that are breaking the rules of star formation. In the process, he's become an inspiration to other students who might be interested in astrophysical research.

A Student Finds Three Galaxies and Possibly Solves a Mystery By Carolyn Collins Petersen - October 09, 2026 06:01 AM UTC | Extragalactic It's not too often that a high school student-turned undergraduate gets three galaxies named after him, especially ones that are breaking the rules of star formation. At Berkeley, Shapiro is part of a research group led by astrophysicist Alexei Filippenko, working on cosmological measurements that have resulted in differing definitions of the Hubble Constant. He will also be doing follow-up work on his Shapiro galaxies as part of his undergraduate experience.

Key facts

• Julian Shapiro, an astrophysics student at the University of California, Berkeley, — found: strange dwarf galaxies in the vicinity of the large spiral M101 while doing research into their star formation rates as a high school student