Still there is no reason why life could not originate far from any star.
When we think about whether there are aliens, we usually think them vague, Earth-like planet orbiting a distant star.
We never think that they can just live in outer space.
But maybe that’s not so strange thought. In April 2016, scientists have said that some of the structural elements of life can form from simple substances in harsh environments like outer space. Scientists have shown that a mixture of frozen water, methanol and ammonia – the components that exist in a large “molecular clouds”, from which stars are formed.
They can be transformed into a number of sugar molecules when exposed to ultraviolet rays that permeate space. These sugars include ribose, which is part of such DNA molecules, RNA molecules. This implies that the fundamental molecules of life can form in space, and then spread through the planets like Earth with meteorites and icy comets.
So there was an interesting suggestion that life itself could not need the planet warm and comfortable, bathed in the rays of the sun. If the ingredients already exist in the interplanetary space, could life arise there, too? To create the basic elements of life like sugars and amino acids – the simplest. There are a lot of chemically-plausible ways to do it.
But the challenge is to get these complex molecules to assemble into something that is able to maintain vital processes such as division and metabolism. That’s never been done. However, still there is no reason why life could not originate far from any star.
