New NASA Webb Telescope images support previously controversial findings about how planets form

NASA says it was able to use the James Webb Telescope About ancient stars that challenge theoretical models of how planets form. Pictures support Which has not been confirmed yet.

Webb’s new, highly detailed images were taken from the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy neighboring our Milky Way. The Webb telescope focused in particular on a cluster called NGC 346, which NASA says is a good indicator of “similar conditions in the distant, distant universe,” which lacks the heavier elements traditionally associated with planetary formation. Webb was able to capture a spectrum of light indicating that protoplanetary disks were still hanging around those stars, contradicting previous predictions that they would explode within a few million years.

“Hubble observations of NGC 346 since the mid-2000s have revealed numerous stars 20 to 30 million years old that appear to still contain planet-forming disks,” NASA wrote. Without more detailed evidence, this idea was controversial. The Webb Telescope was able to fill in these details, suggesting that disks in our neighboring galaxies have a much longer period of time to accumulate the dust and gas that forms the basis of a new planet.

As for why these disks were able to survive in the first place, NASA says researchers have two possible theories. The first is that the “radiative pressure” from stars in NGC 346 takes longer to dissipate the planet-forming disks. The other is that the larger gas cloud necessary to form a “Sun-like star” in an environment with fewer heavy elements will naturally produce larger disks that take longer to fade. Whatever theory proves true, the new images are beautiful evidence that we still don’t have a complete understanding of how planets form.