The largest star clusters develop more swiftly from the clouds of gas and dust in which they are born. The discovery is the result of research published in Nature Astronomy by an international team led by Michele Cignoni of the Department of Physics at the University of Pisa and affiliated with the Pisa branch of the INFN. "This work is one of the most comprehensive censuses of the early life of star clusters and demonstrates, on a statistical basis, that the time required for them to emerge from the natal cloud is regulated by their mass", explains Cignoni. The research analyzed approximately 8,900 juvenile star clusters in the galaxies M51, M83, NGC 628, and NGC 4449 by combining observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The JWST's infrared sensitivity enabled the team to recreate an evolutionary process that runs from the youngest clusters, which are still linked with ionized gas and dust, to the clusters observable at optical wavelengths. According to the research, the material surrounding the most massive clusters disperses within approximately 5 million years, whereas the material surrounding the less massive clusters may take 7-8 million years. The findings also have significant implications for understanding how galaxies evolve and planets form. The discoveries help us better understand how stars form and how younger, more massive stars influence their environment with their strong radiation. However, the implications have an impact on planet formation: if larger star clusters develop earlier, the disks of gas and dust surrounding newborn stars are exposed to UV radiation faster, lowering the amount of time available for planet creation.