Images from the new Webb telescope support previously controversial findings on planet formation.

NASA has reported that it has successfully used the James Webb Space Telescope to capture images of forming planetary disks around ancient stars, which challenge theoretical models of planet formation. These images support earlier findings from the Hubble Space Telescope that had not been able to be verified until now.

The detailed images from Webb were captured from the "Small Magellenic Cloud," a neighboring dwarf galaxy to our Milky Way. The telescope focused on a cluster called NGC 346, which is considered a good model for "conditions similar to those in the early and distant universe" and lacks the heavier elements typically associated with planet formation. Thanks to its capabilities, Webb was able to record a spectrum of light suggesting that protoplanetary disks still remain around these stars, contradicting previous expectations that they would have disappeared in a few million years.

Hubble's observations of NGC 346 since the mid-2000s had revealed many stars between 20 and 30 million years old that still appeared to have forming planetary disks. This idea was controversial at the time due to the lack of more detailed evidence, which the Webb telescope has now managed to provide. This suggests that the disks in our neighboring galaxies have a much longer time to accumulate the dust and gas that form the basis of a new planet.

Regarding why these disks may persist, NASA proposes two possible theories. One suggests that the "radiation pressure" expelled by the stars in NGC 346 simply takes longer to break down the forming planetary disks. The other theory posits that the larger gas cloud needed to form a Sun-like star in an environment with fewer heavy elements would naturally produce larger disks that would take longer to dissipate. Regardless of which theory turns out to be correct, the images obtained are beautiful evidence that we still do not fully understand how planets form.