Alexander Avtanski wrote:
J.Barsuhn wrote:



Southern Hospitality wrote:

Quick question here that I've thought about in the past and always
assumed what the answer was but would like to hear some thoughts:

Do we know of any stars that exist outside of the influence of a galaxy?


No. As far as I know, no intergalactic stars have been observed.

If so, which direction are they moving? Are they stars that once
existed within the influence of a galaxy or are there nebula/gas
clouds that are stellar nursury?


Star formation occurs in relatively dense clouds. The density of
intergalacric matter is far too low to allow star formation

All the best Jurgen


In principle, I think a star could be ejected from a galaxy after
being formed. A low mass star could (theoretically at least) go
in crazy trajectory after a close encounter with a much heavier
star. I don't know if this could happen in practice, though...

- Alex

Great! My assumption was that all stars are formed within galaxies. I
had also thought that any star that was spotted in intergalactic space
would likely have been the result of some past event that flung it
outside of it's original home.