16.12.2024 22:36 Uhr, Quelle: Engadget

NASA’s new Webb telescope images support previously controversial findings about how planets form

NASA says it was able to use the James Webb telescope to capture images of planet-forming disks around ancient stars that challenge theoretical models of how planets can form. The images support earlier findings from the Hubble telescope that haven’t been able to be confirmed until now. The new Webb highly detailed images were captured from the “Small Magellanic Cloud,” a neighboring dwarf galaxy to our home, the Milky Way. The Webb telescope was specifically focused on a cluster called NGC 346, which NASA says is a good proxy for “similar conditions in the early, distant universe,” and which lacks the heavier elements that have traditionally been connected to planet formation. Webb was able to capture a spectra of light which suggests protoplanetary disks are still hanging out around those stars, going against previous expectations that they would have blown away in a few million years. ASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Olivia C. Jones (UK ATC), Guido De Marchi (ESTEC), Margaret Meixner (US

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