The centre of the Milky Way tastes of raspberries and smells of rum
In 2009, astronomers at the IRAM radio telescope detected ethyl formate — a chemical compound — in a dense gas cloud near the centre of the Milky Way. Ethyl formate is responsible for the flavour of raspberries and is a component of rum. Of the 50 molecules detected in that cloud, ethyl formate was one of the most abundant. To be clear: the cloud is a gas cloud hundreds of light-years across, and you would not survive near it — but if you could somehow safely smell it, it would smell like rum and raspberries.
Space is experienced as sterile, odourless, cold, and abstract. Finding that the galactic core smells like a cocktail ingredient — and confirming it via radio telescope data — makes the universe's chemistry feel unexpectedly homely and specific.
“The centre of the Milky Way smells like rum and tastes of raspberries. Astronomers detected ethyl formate — the compound behind both — in a gas cloud at the galactic core. 🍹 #OddlyHuman”