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TheJames Webb Space Telescope(JWST ) has just solved a 20 - yr - old mystery about how ancient stars could host massive satellite .
In the early 2000s , theHubble Space Telescopeobserved theoldest satellite ever , an object 2.5 time as large as Jupiter that formed in the Milky Way 13 billion twelvemonth ago , less than a billion yr after the existence was suffer . The discovery ofother old planetssoon travel along . This puzzled scientist , as stars in the early universe should have consist mostly of light elements like atomic number 1 and atomic number 2 , with almost none of the sonorous component — thing like carbon copy and smoothing iron — that make up planets .
This is a James Webb Space Telescope image of NGC 346, a massive star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The 10 yellow circles indicate the 10 stars surveyed in the new study.
Astronomers believed that the disc of dust and gas smother these light - element star should have been bollocks up forth by the maven ’s own radiation sickness , scatter the disk within a couple of million years and leave behind nothing behind to make a major planet . The heavy element needed to make a long - lasting planetary disk around a asterisk were n’t available until latersupernova explosions created them , scientist thought .
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Now , though , the JWST has direct a close look at a modernistic - day procurator for these old star and found that the Hubble was not mistaken . In new research published Dec. 16 inThe Astrophysical Journal , investigator constitute that when there are few laborious , metal constituent , planetary phonograph record can last much longer than previously believed .
" We see that these stars are indeed surrounded by disks and are still in the process of gobbling material , even at the relatively onetime eld of 20 [ million ] or 30 million long time , " study booster cable authorGuido De Marchi , an astronomer at the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk , Netherlands , said in a statement . " This also implies that planets have more sentence to form and develop around these asterisk than in nearby star - take form regions in our own wandflower . "
James Webb’s observations
The JWST mention the spectra ( a measurement of different wavelengths of light ) of the stars in the star - imprint cluster named NGC 346 . Conditions in this cluster are similar to those in the early population , with spate of weak element like hydrogen and helium and a comparative shortage of metal and other threatening elements . The cluster is in theSmall Magellanic Cloud , a galaxy 199,000 light - years from Earth .
The lightsome and electromagnetic wave coming off these stars and their environment revealed that they host long - hold up planetary disks . There are two path this could ferment , harmonize to Marchi and his colleague .
— Surprise find in alien planet ’s atmosphere could upend decades of planet organization theory
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— Why is Pluto not moot a planet ?
The first is that stars made up of short element do not host a lot of elements undergoing radioactive decay — those radioactive elements are all heavier . This lack of radiation means that the star has less power to push off the planetary disc , so it might last far longer than a disc around a star with more heavy component .
Another possibility is that a sensation take shape from only light elements must form from a very , very large cloud of dust and gas . This redundant - bombastic dust swarm would also result behind a huge disk around the newborn star , and that huge record might take a very long sentence to blow away , even if light - component stars give off just as much radiation syndrome as heavier - element stars .
" This has logical implication for how you form a planet , and the case of system architecture that you may have in these different environments , " study co - authorElena Sabbi , chief scientist for the Gemini Observatory at the National Science Foundation ’s NOIRLab in Tucson , said in the affirmation . " This is so exciting . "
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