Keele University astrophysicists, alongside a NASA supported research team, have detected complex organic molecules, including some of the chemical ingredients for life, outside the Milky Way for the first time. 

The team, led by University of Maryland and NASA research scientist Marta Sewilo and including Keele University's Dr Joana Oliveira and Dr Jacco van Loon, used the James Webb Space Telescope to discover five different carbon-based compounds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, our nearest galactic neighbour. 

Dr van Loon said: "We have used the James Webb Space Telescope to, for the first time, find precursors of biotic material in a nearby galaxy.  

"Acetic acid, methyl formate and possibly glycolaldehyde all are associated with the creation of the first sugars, which form the basis of RNA and DNA - the foundations of life. 

"To find these also in the more pristine environment of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy suggests life might have started elsewhere much earlier than it has on Earth." 

Many of the molecules found in ice surrounding a star called ST6 are also found on Earth, such as methanol and ethanol, common types of alcohol. 

The discovery marks the first time that acetic acid has ever been conclusively detected in space ice, and the first time that three other molecules, ethanol, methyl formate and acetaldehyde, have been detected in ices outside the Milky Way galaxy.