NASA scientists have discovered there is possibly more than one life forming chemical in the universe.

Astronomers were using the Spitzer space telescope while observing planet forming material swirling around various types of stars.

They were looking for a chemical found in every living organism on earth.

Hydrogen cyanide is a component of the basic element found in all DNA.

Scientists observed over 60 stars.

They were not able to find any traces of the basic DNA element in 70% of the stars which were similar to our sun.

Also, they also did not find any traces of the element around the cooler and smaller stars similar to commonly found reddish-colored stars known as M-dwarfs (see below for definition).

Considering some recently discovered M-dwarf stars have been thought of as simply larger versions of Earths or “Super Earths,”scientists now find themselves questioning what type of life, if any, could these other earths sustain.

M-dwarf: “An M dwarf is the smallest kind of star there is. They have masses ranging from about 50 percent of the Sun’s mass down to about 8 percent of the Sun’s mass. That’s a huge range, as far as stars are concerned. Because, for example, the amount of light coming to our eyes, if we were on a planet going around an M dwarf, would vary from one end of the range to the other by a factor of about 10 thousand. So you have a lot of different environments around M dwarfs.” (astrobio)