The James Webb Space Telescope has uncovered groundbreaking evidence that planet-forming disks in the early universe lasted longer than previously thought, offering new insights into how massive planets formed in the cosmos’s infancy.
In 2003, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope detected a massive planet orbiting an ancient star, nearly as old as the universe itself. This was surprising because such old stars contain minimal heavy elements, the essential building blocks for planet formation.
To delve deeper into this mystery, researchers utilized the advanced capabilities of the Webb Telescope to study stars in a nearby galaxy that mirrors the conditions of the early universe, characterized by a scarcity of heavy elements.
Their findings were remarkable: not only do some of these stars possess planet-forming disks, but these disks also endure much longer than those around younger stars in our Milky Way galaxy. This extended lifespan could have allowed planets even larger than Jupiter to form in the early universe.
“With Webb, we have a really strong confirmation of what we saw with Hubble, and we must rethink how we model planet formation and early evolution in the young universe,” said study leader Guido De Marchi of the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, Netherlands.
This discovery challenges existing theories about planetary formation and suggests that massive planets could have formed even when heavy elements were scarce. The research opens new avenues for understanding the dynamics of the early universe and the origins of planetary systems.
Reference(s):
Webb finds planet-forming disks lived longer in early universe
cgtn.com
