The James Webb Space Telescope captured one of its largest public images on September 15, 2026, revealing brown dwarfs with masses as low as twice that of Jupiter inside the star-forming region IC 348.
Astronomers targeted IC 348, a nearby star-forming region, specifically to search for brown dwarfs, according to NASA and the European Space Agency. Brown dwarfs sit below the mass threshold of the smallest stars, occupying a range that has been difficult to probe at low masses.
The newly found objects, at just two Jupiter masses, push that research into territory not previously covered, NASA said. The ESA described the IC 348 image as among the largest Webb has released to the public.