In a manger young stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy close to the Milky Way, the basic ingredients that give rise to planets have been observed, that is, the microscopic grains of dust that gradually unite to form bodies like the Earth.

The discovery was published in the journal Nature Astronomy at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, Scotland, in collaboration with Italy’s National Astrophysical Institute (Inaf).

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The result is based on data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope and allows us to understand how planets can arise even in galaxies that are poor in the necessary materials.

Planets are born from microscopic grains of dust which, over time, form first pebbles and then rocky planetesimals.

The latter, by colliding with each other, give rise to planetary cores. For this formation process to occur, elements such as silicon, magnesium, aluminum and iron, rare substances in the Small Magellanic Cloud, are necessary.

To understand how planets can form even under these conditions, researchers led by Olivia Jones observed hundreds of young stars, exploiting James Webb’s ability to detect thermal radiation emitted by heated dust grains.

In this way, the authors of the study discovered traces of dust orbiting young stars: this means that planets are likely to form as stars mature.

The data collected also indicates that the presence of the basic ingredients of the planets of the Small Magellanic Cloud is similar to that of much more distant galaxies, which date back approximately 11 to 12 billion years. Therefore, the formation of planets may have already begun at that distant time in the Universe.