The scientific stargazers at the Paris Observatory just released a paper in Science Advances that detailed the shock they had when they realized Lovejoy was just giving off massive amounts of ethyl alcohol along with a simple sugar (glycolaldehyde) and 19 other organic molecules in gas released by the comet.
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More importantly, the discovery further lends credence to the theory that comets and other celestial beings helped facilitate life on Earth as it first happened. Scientists have discovered that the comet Lovejoy is actually leaving a vast trail of alcohol and sugar as it passes.
The discovery marks the first time ethyl alcohol, the same type that you might find in alcoholic beverages, has been seen in a comet. It last passed close to Earth in January, when the researchers were able to observe its atmosphere using a large radio telescope of almost 98.4 feet (30 meters) in diameter located deep in Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountains, according to a press release.
“The result definitely promotes the idea the comets carry very complex chemistry”, said co-author Stefanie Milam, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
An worldwide team of scientists has found that the comet, first cataloged in Q2 of past year, is producing an enormous amount of alcohol, confirming for the first time a few of the organic material speculated to be given off by these stellar travelers. “Instead, life had something that was much more sophisticated on a molecular level”.
Comet Lovejoy is sweeping between Earth and Mars right now, sending off spectacular views before disappearing into the cosmic abyss. We’re finding molecules with multiple carbon atoms.
Other organic molecules have previously been found in comets, most recently in 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. “These can start forming much easier than beginning with molecules with only two or three atoms”.
The cloud contains countless dust grains.
“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”, Dominique Bockele-Morvan from Paris Observatory, said in a statement. The presence of organic molecules on comets has been shown time and time again, including on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the comet the European Space Agency’s Philae lander made its home.
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In the early days of the solar systems, comets colliding with one another formed the masses that would become the planets.
