JWST Decodes the Universe's Dust Origins by Studying a Nearby Dwarf Galaxy
Using the James Webb Space Telescope to study Sextans A, a metal-poor dwarf galaxy 4.6 million light-years away, researchers map dust-producing stars and find that about 2–3 billion years after their formation, a subset of asymptotic giant branch stars produced thick dust shells. This helps explain how the first generations of stars seeded the interstellar medium with metals and dust, enabling the early universe to become the birthplace of stars and galaxies.