APOD: 2023 January 13 - Young Star Cluster NGC 346

Good Red Friday evening, Rallypoint, and welcome to the January 13th edition of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD): "Young Star Cluster NGC 346." The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to amaze. Astronomers probed this region of the Small Magellanic Cloud because the conditions and amount of metals (elements heavier than hydrogen or helium) near NGC 346 resemble those seen in galaxies billions of years ago. Yet it turns out that the stars in NGC 346 are relatively young. Data from the JWST suggest that the stars in NGC 346 are only 3-5 million years old.

As stars form, they gather gas and dust from the surrounding molecular cloud. The material collects into accretion disks that feed their central protostars. Near-infrared observations from the JWST mark the first time metals have been detected in these disks. What could that mean? We are seeing the building blocks of planets. At an evolutionary age much younger than previously expected. Fun stuff.