Scientists have discovered the coldest ice in the universe

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered ice blocks of extremely low temperature, about 11 degrees Kelvin, in the constellation Chameleon. To date, this is the coldest known substance in the natural environment of the Universe. But the find is also interesting in other ways – scientists were able to identify the entire list of CHNOS, that is, the presence of molecules of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur.

Together with phosphorus, CHNOS forms the basis for all life on Earth. And this stunned scientists, because the space ice was not found anywhere, but in a cloud of molecular dust, from which stars are formed. It turns out that future stars and star systems already have, from the moment of formation, the basic resources with which life can originate on them.

Even more interesting, organic molecules such as methanol, ammonia, water and carbon dioxide were already “assembled” in the composition of this ice. And this fundamentally changes our understanding of star formation processes, because previously it was thought that the abundance of organic molecules – this is the “calling card” of the solar system. Now scientists think that any stellar system can be originally “prepared” for life.

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