"The star is situated not far from the Tarantula Nebula, and the ultraviolet light spewed by its baby stars. (X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et al.; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JWST ERO Production Team) (Science Alert, Life's Ingredients Found Frozen Beyond The Milky Way For First Time)
"For the first time, astronomers have seen life's building blocks in ice beyond the borders of our galaxy. Among a mix of complex organic molecules trapped in ice circling a newborn star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, researchers found ethanol, acetaldehyde, and methyl formate – compounds that have never before been spotted in ice form outside the Milky Way.Moreover, another identified compound, acetic acid, has never before been conclusively identified in ice anywhere in space." (Science Alert, Life's Ingredients Found Frozen Beyond The Milky Way For First Time)
"The discovery, led by astrophysicist Marta Sewiło of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland, suggests that the ingredients for the chemistry that gives birth to life are widespread and robust across the cosmos, and not limited to our own galaxy." (Science Alert, Life's Ingredients Found Frozen Beyond The Milky Way For First Time)
"For a century, astronomers have been studying Barnard’s Star in the hope of finding planets around it. First discovered by E. E. Barnard at Yerkes Observatory in 1916, it is the nearest single star system to Earth. Now, astronomers have discovered four sub-Earth exoplanets orbiting the star. One of the planets is the least massive exoplanet ever discovered using the radial velocity technique, indicating a new benchmark for discovering smaller planets around nearby stars. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld" (ScitechDaily, Four Tiny Planets Discovered Near Earth, After Century-Long Search)
Space autoside galaxies are freezing. Intergalactic space is one of the frontiers. That has not been researched yet. There is material. And maybe lone stars, like small red dwarfs, that are fleeing from galaxies. The question is, how long can those stars exist? There is a minimum radiation pressure, and the difference between temperatures on the star’s surface and its environment is far higher than in galaxies. Because there is no starwind or ion flow that travels between stars, that means there is no impact wave between those hypothetical solar systems and the star.
That means the resistance of the energy flow out from those hypothetical stars outside galaxies and star clusters is minimal. So, there is a possibility that those stars will detonate quite soon. That is one of the most exciting visions that we can imagine. What if those stars really exist? There are stars in dwarf galaxies and star clusters around galaxies like the Milky Way. But can there be lonely red dwarfs outside star clusters and dwarf galaxies? If they exist, those stars would be very hard to detect.
Researchers found life ingredients outside our galaxy. Those ingredients were found in the icy nebula, in the freezing ice, where the temperature is hardly above zero K. This means that. Those chemical compounds cannot form in that ice. There is always a possibility that a supernova explosion throws that ice away from the galaxy. In this hypothesis. Ice can be a remnant of a water planet. The supernova detonation crushed. There is a possibility that water ice can form in space.
"The location of the star ST6 within the Large Magellanic Cloud. The JWST image of ST6 is inset bottom right. (NASA/ESA/CSA/JPL-Caltech/M. Sewiło et al., 2025)" (Science Alert, Life's Ingredients Found Frozen Beyond The Milky Way For First Time)
An illustration of some of the detected COMs in the ice coating on a grain of dust. (NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center) (Science Alert, Life's Ingredients Found Frozen Beyond The Milky Way For First Time)
The red dwarf’s problem: all red dwarfs near us are very young.
The shockwave from the supernova explosion or some other high-energy reaction. It can push hydrogen and oxygen atoms together. And in that model, there is no need for planets where water ice can form. But the thing that makes those life ingredients so interesting is that on Earth, they form in the cell metabolism. Those chemical compounds that we think of as life ingredients. They are always interesting. Those icy nebulae involve life ingredients. Cause thoughts. Could life itself be a quite usual thing in the universe? Could intelligent civilizations be less usual events than we think? If there are lifeforms. Most of them are quite primitive. The red dwarf can exist for over ten trillion years, and life has time to advance on those stars. Mature red dwarfs. It can have intelligent lifeforms.
On planets that orbit it. The problem is that there are no very old red dwarfs near our solar system. The three most well-known red dwarfs, Proxima Centauri, Bernard’s star, and Wolf 359, are very young. Their ages are a maximum of 10 billion years, which is the age of Bernard’s star. And that age is very short. If we think that a red dwarf can exist for 10 trillion years. Proxima Centauri is the same age as our Sun, and Wolf 359 is a very young star.
Life on red dwarf planets might be something that we have ever thought of before. The red dwarfs are flare stars. But that is only one period of those stars’ lives. The Sun can live 10 billion years. The red dwarf can exist for even over ten trillion years. This means life has more time to advance near those strange stars. The Proxima Centauri. As an example. It is about 5 billion years old. That means it's about the same age as our sun. But Proxima Centauri can live or exist. Even billions of years. So, Proxima Centauri is very young. If we compare its existence with its predicted lifetime. Another close red dwarf, Bernard’s Star, is about 10 billion years old. That red dwarf. That is slightly larger than Jupiter.
Has four exoplanets. The third interesting red dwarf, Wolf 359, has no known planetary system. That red dwarf is about 0,1-1,5 billion years old. So, there is no planet formation possible near that very small red dwarf. Wolf 359 is at the beginning of its life, and it's in the most sensitive flare period. Life is a complicated thing. And that means there are many things that can cause destruction. Cosmic catastrophes can destroy the entire planet. Before it can form. Or some flare eruption can sterilize the planet. But that requires. The flare hits the planet directly.
https://www.sciencealert.com/lifes-ingredients-found-frozen-beyond-the-milky-way-for-first-time
https://scitechdaily.com/four-tiny-planets-discovered-near-earth-after-century-long-search/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard%27s_Star
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_359
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