In 2003, the Hubble Space Observatory provided evidence of the existence of a massive planet around a very old star, almost as old as the universe itself, which means that the planets may have arisen at an earlier time than scientists previously thought, and that these planets had enough time to form and grow to become even larger than a planet. the buyer.
Scientists know ancient stars by studying their composition, which appears to contain a very small percentage of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium compared to younger stars, such as the Sun and other stars that we know.
This contradicts the models that scientists agree on, which say that with so few heavy elements, the disks surrounding stars have so short a lifespan that planets cannot grow significantly, but James Webb proves that this hypothesis is incorrect.
The oldest planets
Researchers used the James Webb Space Observatory to study ancient stars living in a nearby dwarf galaxy (the Small Magellanic Cloud), and found that not only did some of those stars have planet-forming disks, but that these disks were longer-lived than those seen around young stars in Milky Way Galaxy.
Scientists examined the massive star cluster NGC 346, which is in the process of forming new stars, and which also relatively lacks heavy elements.
James Webb’s observations revealed many stars that are about 20 to 30 million years old, and which appear to still contain planet-forming disks around them. This contradicts the traditional belief that such disks will dissipate after 2 or 3 million years.
This discovery allows us to assume that the early universe was perhaps covered in planets just as it was covered in stars, and therefore scientists should direct their research to studying this point in the future.
James Webb will work particularly efficiently on missions of this type, as planetary disks emit infrared waves, which is the range that James Webb specializes in studying.