Image of star cluster from more than 10 billion years ago illuminates the universe's infancy

 By Harry Taylor

January 11, 2023 20:36 GMT

With a picture of the NGC 346 cluster, the James Webb satellite telescope provides insight into the creation of stars during "cosmic noon."

                      After the James Webb satellite telescope revealed a fresh image of a cluster from more than 10 billion years ago, scientists were granted an unparalleled look into the creation of stars and the early stages of the cosmos.

More than 200,000 light years from Earth, the picture depicts the youthful star cluster NGC 346.

The cluster, which is located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), has attracted the attention of scientists because it is similar to the circumstances that existed in the early cosmos when star creation was at its most active.

In order to better understand how the earliest stars emerged at the "cosmic noon," barely 2 or 3 billion years after the big bang, astronomers are researching the area.

The principal author of a report including the photos is Dr. Olivia Jones, a Webb fellow at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's UK astronomy technology centre.

This is the first time we have been able to observe the complete chain of star formation in a galaxy with both low mass stars and high mass stars, according to Jones.

This gives us new knowledge about how the formation of stars shapes their environments and even more insight into the star formation process. It also means that we have a lot more data to study at high resolution.

Protostars, which are interstellar clouds of gas and dust that are becoming stars, are found in the NGC 346 cluster. These are examined by astronomers in an effort to learn more about how stars are created.

It seems like ribbons are streaming in from the surrounding molecular cloud as the gas and particles accumulate. The substance gathers into a disc that feeds the primary protostar.

In that cluster, scientists had previously found gas surrounding protostars, but JWST's studies have also found dust.

The Hubble space telescope can't see things that are too ancient, far away, or dim, but the JWST is the greatest optical telescope in orbit. Christmas Day 2021 saw the spacecraft's launch.

The telescope produced high-resolution images of distant galaxies that were created billions of years ago in July 2022. It also captured an image of Jupiter that revealed the weather patterns, moons, altitudes, cloud covers, and auroras of the giant gas planet.

The European Space Agency's Guido de Marchi, a member of the study team, stated: "We're witnessing the building blocks, not just of stars but also possibly of planets.

The Small Magellanic Cloud's environment is comparable to that of galaxies at cosmic noon, therefore it's likely that rocky planets developed earlier in the universe than previously believed.