Astronomy: Do you know what does the space smell? There is a recent study that tells you about it.

Last thursday (January 11th, 2018) a famous magazine called Science published an article that shows the results about a study made by a group of astronomers who detected the presence of benzonitrile in space, which is an organic molecule that smells like bitter almonds.    

In a press conference, in order to celebrate the 231th meeting of AAS (American Astronomical Society), Brett McGuire who is the principal investigator of the team, said this investigation marks the first time a specific aromatic molecule is detected in space using a radio spectroscopy.  

In order to identify what kind of aromatic molecules are in space, something more precise is needed, so that radio spectroscopy is the most commonly used method.   

McGuire and his team took the Green Bank Telescope to observe this type of molecule in a cold cloud at the area of Tauro and make a technic called spectral stacking to find benzonitrile signs while doing a radio study to Taurus Molecular Cloud 1 (TMC-1). With the aim to confirm the results, the team made many studies about the different rotational transitions of the molecule and compared them with the benzonitrile ones.  

Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia / Image courtesy of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory 

Organic molecules that have a hexagonal ring made of carbon atoms like benzonitrile, are everywhere in space – We know this because this substances emit a characteristic spectrum in infrared, which is detected at many places in space. Benzonitrile is produced in Earth by dehydrating benzamide or reacting sodium cyanide with bromobenzene. However, the smell of almonds is related to the aromatic molecules with cyanide.  

Thanks to this research made by McGuire and his team, Cambridge University investigators and the Academy of Science in Moscu, the composition of specific organic molecules in space and the molecular complexity of protoplanetary disks that surrounds the young stars and others can be studied and realized.  

Sources:

https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/ciencia/que-huele-el-espacio-astronomos-detectan-una-molecula-aromatica-articulo-733093 

http://www.zocalo.com.mx/new_site/articulo/el-espacio-huele-a-almendras-amargas 

http://www.periodistadigital.com/ciencia/universo/2018/01/12/el-universo-huele-a-almendras-amargas-y-a-otras-cosas.shtml  

Thanks for reading!

See  you in next post.

Deyra DB