Science cartoon on Comet with alcohol

Comet with alcohol

Imagine an ocean of alcohol. Yes, believe me, neither I am drunk, nor comet researcher Nicolas Biver of the Paris Observatory, France. Nicolas Biver, lead author of a paper published on Oct. 23 in Science Advances is revealing the boozy fact about comet lovejoy with the words "We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity".

Comet Lovejoy was having name C/2014Q2 according to catalogue. It was one of the brightest and most active comets since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. When it was moving closest to the sun on last week of January this year, the team of scientist observed that it was releasing water at rate of 20,000 lit per second. When scientist observed the shower of water with different wavelength, they found various kind of organic chemicals. The team found 21 different kind of molecules in comet, including ethyl alcohol (ethanol, C2H5OH) and the simplest monosaccharide sugar glycolaldehyde (CH2OHCHO). Presence of alcohol is reported for the first time.

Reference: Biver et al, Ethylalcohol and sugar in comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy). Science Advances,2015; 1(9):e1500863 published date: 23 Oct, 2015

Article in Science Daily: Researcherscatch Comet Lovejoy giving awayalcohol