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.

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.

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