Picture of the comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) on 12 February 2015 from 50km south of Paris. (Credits: Fabrice Noel)
If you are looking for a good time, it might be worth stopping by Comet Lovejoy.
That’s because the famous comet is releasing huge amounts of alcohol as well as a type of sugar in space, according to NASA. This marks the first time that ethyl alcohol, the same type found in alcoholic beverages, has been observed in a comet.
"We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity," Nicolas Biver of the Paris Observatory, France and the lead author of a paper on the discovery published in Science Advances, said in astatement.
Related: Lovejoy Lives! Comet Survives Hellish Encounter With Sun
It also raises the prospect that comets could have been a source of the complex organic molecules required for the emergence of life. The team found 21 different organic molecules in gas from the comet, including ethyl alcohol and glycolaldehyde, a simple sugar.
"The result definitely promotes the idea the comets carry very complex chemistry," said Stefanie Milam of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., a co-author on the paper, in the statement. "During the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.8 billion years ago, when many comets and asteroids were blasting into Earth and we were getting our first oceans, life didn't have to start with just simple molecules like water, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen. Instead, life had something that was much more sophisticated on a molecular level.”
Comet Lovejoy (formally cataloged as C/2014 Q2) is one of the brightest and most active comets since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Earlier this year, it was so bright that stargazers could see its green colors with the naked eye.
Related: 'Comet of the century' nears Earth
For the latest research, scientists took advantage of the comet’s close pass to the sun on Jan. 30 when it was bright and most active – and releasing water at the rate of 20 tons per second.
Sunlight energizes molecules in the comet's atmosphere, causing them to glow at specific microwave frequencies. Each kind of molecule glows at specific signature frequencies, allowing the team to identify it with detectors on the telescope.
The findings could lend support to the theory that comet impacts on ancient Earth delivered a supply of organic molecules that could have assisted the origin of life.
“We're finding molecules with multiple carbon atoms. So now you can see where sugars start forming, as well as more complex organics such as amino acids - the building blocks of proteins - or nucleobases, the building blocks of DNA,” Milam said. “These can start forming much easier than beginning with molecules with only two or three atoms."
In July, the European Space Agency reported that the Philae lander from its Rosetta spacecraft in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko detected 16 organic compounds as it descended toward and then bounced across the comet's surface. According to the agency, some of the compounds detected play key roles in the creation of amino acids, nucleobases, and sugars from simpler "building-block" molecules.
Astronomers think comets preserve material from the ancient cloud of gas and dust that formed the solar system. The clouds contain countless grains of dust with carbon dioxide, water, and other gases forming a layer of frost on the surface of these grains. Radiation in space powers chemical reactions in this frost layer to produce complex organic molecules.
"The next step is to see if the organic material being found in comets came from the primordial cloud that formed the solar system or if it was created later on, inside the protoplanetary disk that surrounded the young sun," said Dominique Bockelée-Morvan from Paris Observatory, a co-author of the paper, in the paper.
If you are looking for a good time, it might be worth stopping by Comet Lovejoy.
That’s because the famous comet is releasing huge amounts of alcohol as well as a type of sugar in space, according to NASA. This marks the first time that ethyl alcohol, the same type found in alcoholic beverages, has been observed in a comet.
"We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity," Nicolas Biver of the Paris Observatory, France and the lead author of a paper on the discovery published in Science Advances, said in astatement.
Related: Lovejoy Lives! Comet Survives Hellish Encounter With Sun
It also raises the prospect that comets could have been a source of the complex organic molecules required for the emergence of life. The team found 21 different organic molecules in gas from the comet, including ethyl alcohol and glycolaldehyde, a simple sugar.
"The result definitely promotes the idea the comets carry very complex chemistry," said Stefanie Milam of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., a co-author on the paper, in the statement. "During the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.8 billion years ago, when many comets and asteroids were blasting into Earth and we were getting our first oceans, life didn't have to start with just simple molecules like water, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen. Instead, life had something that was much more sophisticated on a molecular level.”
Comet Lovejoy (formally cataloged as C/2014 Q2) is one of the brightest and most active comets since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Earlier this year, it was so bright that stargazers could see its green colors with the naked eye.
Related: 'Comet of the century' nears Earth
For the latest research, scientists took advantage of the comet’s close pass to the sun on Jan. 30 when it was bright and most active – and releasing water at the rate of 20 tons per second.
Sunlight energizes molecules in the comet's atmosphere, causing them to glow at specific microwave frequencies. Each kind of molecule glows at specific signature frequencies, allowing the team to identify it with detectors on the telescope.
The findings could lend support to the theory that comet impacts on ancient Earth delivered a supply of organic molecules that could have assisted the origin of life.
“We're finding molecules with multiple carbon atoms. So now you can see where sugars start forming, as well as more complex organics such as amino acids - the building blocks of proteins - or nucleobases, the building blocks of DNA,” Milam said. “These can start forming much easier than beginning with molecules with only two or three atoms."
In July, the European Space Agency reported that the Philae lander from its Rosetta spacecraft in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko detected 16 organic compounds as it descended toward and then bounced across the comet's surface. According to the agency, some of the compounds detected play key roles in the creation of amino acids, nucleobases, and sugars from simpler "building-block" molecules.
Astronomers think comets preserve material from the ancient cloud of gas and dust that formed the solar system. The clouds contain countless grains of dust with carbon dioxide, water, and other gases forming a layer of frost on the surface of these grains. Radiation in space powers chemical reactions in this frost layer to produce complex organic molecules.
"The next step is to see if the organic material being found in comets came from the primordial cloud that formed the solar system or if it was created later on, inside the protoplanetary disk that surrounded the young sun," said Dominique Bockelée-Morvan from Paris Observatory, a co-author of the paper, in the paper.
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