A stunning image of the formation of stars in a nearby galaxy is taken by James Webb.

Webb's ground-breaking image of the region 200,000 light years from Earth where stars form, NGC 346. Credits: O. Jones (UK ATC), G. De Marchi (ESTEC), M. Meixner (USRA), and NASA, ESA, CSA Processing images: L. Chu (NASA/Ames), A. Pagan (STScI), N. Habel (USRA), and L. Lenkic (USRA)

A stellar nursery known as NGC 346 has been captured in a stunning new image by the James Webb Space Telescope. In addition to being stunning, this image is prompting astronomers to reevaluate their previous hypotheses regarding the possible formation of stars and planets in the early universe.

The nearby Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, is home to the star cluster NGC 346, which is a busy region teeming with star formation. Because it contains fewer heavier elements, the Small Magellanic Cloud's composition differs from that of the Milky Way. Astronomers assumed that there would be less dust in the Small Magellanic Cloud because dust typically consists of these heavier elements; however, Webb discovered that this was not the case.

Webb, on the other hand, discovered a lot of hydrogen and dust in this galaxy, indicating that it contains the elements needed to make stars and planets. Astronomers who had hoped to study the Small Magellanic Cloud will find this intriguing because its composition resembles that of much older galaxies that existed during the cosmic noon, roughly 2 to 3 billion years after the Big Bang.

“A galaxy during cosmic noon wouldn’t have one NGC 346 like the Small Magellanic Cloud does; it would have thousands,” leader of the research team, Margaret Meixner of the Universities Space Research Association, explained in a statement. “But even if NGC 346 is now the one and only massive cluster furiously forming stars in its galaxy, it offers us a great opportunity to probe conditions that were in place at cosmic noon.”

The fact that there could be materials required to create rocky planets in such a galaxy raises questions about the timeline of planet formation in the universe. “We’re seeing the building blocks, not only of stars but also potentially of planets,” said co-author Guido De Marchi of the European Space Agency. “And since the Small Magellanic Cloud has a similar environment to galaxies during cosmic noon, it’s possible that rocky planets could have formed earlier in the universe than we might have thought.”