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We’ve covered the Xeelee Sequence multiple times on this channel. In short, The Xeelee Sequence is a series of science fiction novels and short stories by Stephen Baxter that deal with humanity as they exist in a universe dominated by the powerful and enigmatic race of Aliens known as the Xeelee. The Xeelee were more akin to gods than lifeforms.

When humankind first entered into cosmic society, we were oppressed and enslaved by multiple alien races before we found our footing. The aquatic Squeem, the amorphous Qax. We overcame them, I go in depth into this in my Timelike Infinity video and also in my Ultimate Timeline of the Xeelee Sequence video. Over many thousand of years humankind grew to dominate the milkyway, none stood stronger than us aside from the Xeelee.

When that time came, humankind was contained, our colonies throughout the milky way removed, men had no knowledge of the war that had been raging for billions of years. The Photino Birds were beings of Dark Matter, they were born at the beginning of the universe and since the beginning they have raged against the Xeelee for the soul of the cosmos. The Photino birds were creatures that existed in a sector of reality we could barely perceive. While ordinary matter formed stars, planets, and life, dark matter formed something else entirely. Vast structures. Vast ecologies. And within that hidden universe, the Photino Birds were dominant.

Their war with the Xeelee was not fought with fleets or soldiers. It was fought with the fundamental laws of physics.

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Liquid water is considered essential for life. Surprisingly, however, stable conditions that are conducive to life could exist far from any sun. A research team from the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS at LMU and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) has shown that moons around freefloating planets can keep their water oceans liquid for up to 4.3 billion years by virtue of dense hydrogen atmospheres and tidal heating—that is to say, for almost as long as Earth has existed and sufficient time for complex life to develop.

Planetary systems often form under unstable conditions. If young planets come too close, they can fling each other out of their orbits. This creates free-floating planets (FFPs) that wander through the galaxy without a parent star. An earlier study by LMU physicist Dr. Giulia Roccetti had shown that gas giants ejected in this way do not necessarily lose all of their moons in the process. The new study is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Tidal heating keeps oceans liquid The ejection does, however, alter the orbits of the moons. They become highly elliptical, such that their distance from the planet constantly changes. The resulting tidal forces rhythmically deform the lunar body, compress its interior, and generate heat through friction. This tidal heating can be sufficient to maintain oceans of liquid water on the surface—even without the energy of a star, and in the cold of interstellar space.