Scientists are using a new space telescope to peek into a space cloud and witness the birth of stars and planets in a process that one scientist describes as being “consistent with the story of Creation.”
The James Webb space telescope, the largest optical telescope in space, was launched 13 months ago at a total cost of $10 billion and began sending images back to earth in July. It recently turned its lens toward NGC 346, a cluster of stars located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) more than 200,000 light-years from Earth. While visible to the naked eye, the SMC is estimated to be 3-5 billion years old and is considered a “primitive” dwarf galaxy that resembles the conditions of the early universe with relatively low concentrations of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Scientists believe it is the kind of galaxy that is the building block for larger galaxies and is easier to study.
Using the Near Infrared Camera of the Webb telescope to observe NGC 346, scientists were able to observe for the first time infant stars in the process of forming from gravitationally collapsing gas clouds. The infant stars had not yet ignited their hydrogen fuel to sustain nuclear fusion.
Dr. Schroeder reacted to the new finding by saying it was “entirely consistent with the story of Creation.”
“I was asked how it was that God created light on the first day but the stars and heavenly bodies weren’t created until the fourth day,” Dr. Schroeder said to Israel365 News. “This is consistent with what physicists are learning now; that the universe was opaque at first and then began radiating. Stars had yet to be formed but there was energy.”
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