Comet releasing 500 bottles of wine every second into space

Astronomers observed the comet’s atmosphere on January 30th, when Lovejoy reached the point on its orbit at which its closest to the Sunday. Comet Lovejoy was found releasing large amounts of ethanol, the same type of alcohol present in alcoholic beverages served on Earth.

Nicolas Biver of the Paris Observatory, who co-authored the study that reported the observation, said the amount of alcohol being released by comet Lovejoy every second is equivalent to that found in at least 500 bottles of wine.

Biver is the lead author of a paper on the discovery published October 23 in Science Advances. Along with ethyl alcohol, Lovejoy is releasing 21 different organic molecules in gas from the comet including a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde.

An global team of researchers used the 100-foot-diameter radio telescope at Pico Veleta in Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountains to observe Loveyjoy’s atmosphere in January 2015. Each kind of molecule glows at specific, signature frequencies, allowing the team to identify it with detectors on the telescope.

While you’re busy freaking out about the giant asteroid that is going to do a fly-by past Earth on Halloween, NASA has discovered another rocky object whizzing around in space that is unsafe for a whole other reason.

Not only do comets hold clues to how the solar system was made, a few scientists hypothesize that comet impacts on early Earth deposited organic molecules that may have helped in the origin of life. Like all comets, Lovejoy is considered a fairly pristine sampling of the conditions of our early solar system. At its peak, it was one of the brightest and most active comets since Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. We’re finding molecules with multiple carbon atoms.

ESA said that a few of the carbon and nitrogen-rich organic compounds detected by Philae play an important role in creating a few of the building blocks of life such amino acids, nucleobases, and sugars.

Astronomers have observed a comet partying as it zooms around the solar system. The frozen balls of dust serve as space refrigerators. It was the consistent smashing of comets, mostly made of ice and water, which finally gave the oceans and to this planet along with other organic compounds.