A frightning thought, that is, if a civilization evolved on a planet revolving around a star that was between galaxies.

Thier only hope of distant space fairing would be a faster than light warp drive thing.

So, are there any documented stars between galaxies?

Yes, although it's a bit of nebulous topic: just where is the "outer edge" of a galaxy? How do you know that _this_ star is "in" the galaxy, but _that_ one over there is "outside"?

There has been a lot of interest in this topic over the past decade or so, since the motions of intergalactic stars can tell us something about the distribution of mass in intergalactic spaces. You can find many papers by going to the ADS system:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

and typing into the "Abstract words" box the terms

intergalactic stars virgo cluster

Press the "Send Query" button and scan the list of returned articles. You'll be able to read most of the abstracts, and even the full text of some of the articles (especially if you choose the "astro-ph" links for each article).

Have fun!

There's also the recent stream of results from analysis of the huge SDSS database ... use 'field of streams' in a search engine - you'll get quite a few references to stars lost in inter-galactic Local Group space ...

Another useful search term: 'ICL' or 'IcL' (intra-cluster light).

For real loneliness, try being deep in a void, such as the Boötes void.

From the first time I saw a simulation of colliding galaxies with the resultant ejection of many stars into intergalactic space, I always thought that any civilisation on a planet orbitting such a star would have the most utterly magnificent view of their former home...

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

"Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful." - Ian Faith

There are not much metals between the galaxies (not as many supernovas), and therefore, not as likely for a space faring civilization to come from there (or to there for that matter).

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cause of event ≠ explanation
My Cyclical Multiverse Hypothesis

True - but just imagine a star gently ejected from a galaxy due to such an interaction together with its retinue of planets (assume they are able to maintain a stable orbit throughout the process), just as the first spark of life was emerging. By the time intelligent life evolved...

With 100 billion galaxies of 100 billion stars each, I'm not going to say it couldn't happen! And they don't necessarily have to be spacefaring to appreciate the view - they just need the ability to look up!

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

"Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful." - Ian Faith

Globular cluster NGC 2419 is about 90 kpc (290,000 ly) away. It is called The Intergalactic Wanderer. Despite being considerably more distant than the Magellanic Clouds, it is probably still bound gravitationally to the Milky Way, but only barely I think. There is a considerable population of intergalactic stars between M81 & M82, mostly stripped out of M82 by the collision (Sun, et al., 2005). Zibetti, et al., 2005 study the intracluster light, produced by intergalactic stars, in 683 galaxy clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. It certainly seems that intergalactic stars are common.

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Don't try this at home - We're what you call "professionals" - MythBusters.

Frog,
Why would it be a more daunting prospect than our situation?
We have no reasonable "hope of distant space fairing" unless some supraluminal drive can be invented. Generation ships? I doubt them - they cost too much.

You also made me remember Asimov's 'Nightfall', where a society was exposed to the stars at night for the first time - and collapsed. An inter-galactic system would not be in that position, and multiple suns inflict chaotic orbits, so life, let alone civilisation would be unlikely, but how about a star, or stars, within a dust cloud? Their birth would clear a bubble in the dust - would that clear to the Universe before civilisation occured? If it took longer, what would they think of their first peeps through the veil?

John

well, I think that there would be a way for mankind to spread to the stars in the milkyway sub-lightspeed but that would be slightly harder for a civilization between the galaxies.

Perhaps they could send out robot ships with equipment to generate embryos and raise children to adult hood when the ships got to the galaxy.


I have my doubts that future mankind or some ET would have much need for planets etc. being quite happy to live in some sort of VR, certainly once the stars all run out of energy any ETs left will have to withdraw into artifical worlds either cities underground or VR worlds.

The system described at:http://home.comcast.net/~mbmcneill7/ can evolve within 10,000 years into one that can accommodate sub-light speed intergalactic travel by "taking a suitable star along with the tavellers and their planets". The physics is known; the engineering is left to do as an exercise for the readers---all three of them.

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For those inclined to oppose human meddling with the structure of the universe or the composition and configuration of objects and groups of objects within the universe, consider:
Whether there is a limit to the magnitude of a modulation of chaos below which order remains invariant? Or, is order but a fiction invented by perspectives applied over finite, however large, time intervals?