Telescopes, such as in combination with the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers working together with cutting-edge technology with the James Webb Space Telescope may just be discovering its very first historic object: outside the Milky Way and called “failed stars”-the very first instances being reportedly seen. Results of the analysis and report shall soon come out for an investigation focusing on the search for these brown dwarfs at the NGC 602 cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud, said to have dimensions around 200,000 light-years from our place.
This means that the presence of brown dwarfs in NGC 602 would have a huge significance. A brown dwarf is an object whose mass ranges between 13 and 75 times that of Jupiter but less than what it takes to maintain the hydrogen fusion process characteristic that defines a full-fledged star. Sometimes called “failed stars,” what makes this exciting discovery so exciting is that, so far, all identified brown dwarfs, nearly 3,000 in total, are located within our galaxy, the Milky Way. Confirmation of these detections will prove them to be the first to be seen beyond the Milky Way.
The Significance of Brown Dwarfs in NGC 602
NGC 602 is perhaps the best-studied cluster in the SMC – rich in dense gas- and dust clouds essential to star formation. Even another ionized hydrogen patch – N90 – speaks in its favor as indicative of more intense star-forming activities in this region; exploration with JWST could unveil new instrument capabilities for itself. This one would be able to use its Near-Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument to detect long-wavelength, low-frequency infrared light so that it could be looked at through thick clouds of gas and dust that otherwise absorbed visible light.
This helps scientists, for example, to discover what forms in early-stage star births in a location close to the formation sites when the universe was still an infant. By studying young, metal-poor brown dwarfs discovered within NGC602, Sabbi adds, “We are making progress in finally solving one of the puzzles: under what conditions do the stars and planets form?”.
Breakthrough with Hubble and JWST
The success of JWST in identifying possible brown dwarfs in the SMC speaks to the strength of using it in conjunction with the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble was able to identify young low-mass stars in NGC 602, but only by using the capabilities of JWST can astronomers envision and study substellar mass forms in this cluster. International Space Science Institute’s Antonella Nota and former JWST Project Scientist, “Hubble and the JWST are an amazingly powerful telescope duo!
The recently taken April 2023 images of NGC 602 are revealing clusters of stars, lanes of dust, and gas clouds at unprecedented resolution. This captures how the JWST opened a new chapter in local metal-poor galaxies, just like the universe’s earliest hydrogen-dominated forms.
Future Implications of the Discovery
These findings will be proof, if the brown dwarfs exist, of theories proposed so far that claim a continuation of the stellar distribution below the hydrogen-burning limit forms the mass distribution of bodies. “It seems they form in the same way; they just don’t accrete enough mass to become a fully-fledged star,” Peter Zeidler, an ESA scientist, said.
This opening of the star formation paradigm reveals the capability of the JWST to observe far-distant cosmic phenomena at unprecedented detail. In summing up, Zeidler concluded, “This has never been possible before and also will remain impossible from the ground for the foreseeable future.”
