Astronomers find basic life ingredients in ice beyond the Milky Way

Astronomers have detected basic life ingredients in ice beyond the Milky Way for the first time. Complex organic molecules, including ethanol and acetaldehyde, were found around a young star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The discovery, made using the James Webb Space Telescope, identified several complex carbon compounds in solid form. This finding suggests prebiotic chemistry can occur in harsh cosmic environments, broadening the possibilities for life's origins. These molecules, previously detected in gas form in the same galaxy, are now confirmed in ice outside our own. Ices are crucial for chemical reactions that create increasingly complex molecules, potentially leading to life.