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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Fri Oct 24, 2014, 11:02 AM Oct 2014

Comet smells like rotten eggs, horse urine, alcohol, bitter almonds, vinegar

Rotten eggs, horse urine, alcohol, and bitter almonds: this is the bouquet of odours you would smell if a comet in deep space could be brought back to Earth, European scientists say.

An instrument aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has detected some intriguing chemical signatures from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) since their rendezvous in deep space in August, the scientists said.

Molecules detected include ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulphide, hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde.

"If you could smell the comet, you [would] probably wish that you hadn't," said the team wryly in a blog posted on the European Space Agency (ESA) website.

The device, called Rosina-DFMS, is a mass spectrometer.

more

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-24/comets-smell-like-rotten-eggs/5837806

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Comet smells like rotten eggs, horse urine, alcohol, bitter almonds, vinegar (Original Post) n2doc Oct 2014 OP
Huh. OilemFirchen Oct 2014 #1
Snort libodem Oct 2014 #6
not to mention the HCN would probably kill you! NRaleighLiberal Oct 2014 #2
So it's not vegan then AlbertCat Oct 2014 #3
Oh, good. I thought it was just me. n/t Orsino Oct 2014 #4
Oh libodem Oct 2014 #5
Sounds like the average subway station to me Warpy Oct 2014 #7
On the plus side they do have 'sand dunes' Bosonic Oct 2014 #8
The comet looks like a really OLD chunck of dirty snow. Odin2005 Nov 2014 #9

NRaleighLiberal

(60,014 posts)
2. not to mention the HCN would probably kill you!
Fri Oct 24, 2014, 11:05 AM
Oct 2014

What an interesting mix of chemical substances! An interesting read for a Friday morning.

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