Astronomers have observed a comet partying as it zooms around the solar system. Comet Lovejoy was found releasing large amounts of ethanol, the same type of alcohol present in alcoholic beverages served on Earth. The comet, also known as C/2014 Q2, also spews a type of sugar known as glycolaldehyde.
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.
The discovery marks the first time that ethyl alcohol was observed in a comet, providing additional evidence that comets could have been carriers of complex organic molecules required for the emergence of life.
One particular hypothesis proposes that life on our planet started with molecules that were delivered by comets. Study co-author Stefanie Milam, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the findings promote the idea of comets being a source of complex chemistry.
She said that nearly 4 billion years ago during the Late Heavy Bombardment, when asteroids and comets blasted into Earth and the first oceans of the planet were formed, life did not likely start with simple molecules such as water, nitrogen and carbon monoxide, as it had something more complex on a molecular level.
Scientists think that the clouds of gas and dust that were produced by supernovae and winds from red giant stars nearing the end of their life played a role in the formation of the solar system and that these materials are preserved in comets.
Comet Lovejoy is not the only comet detected to carry organic materials.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has revealed that Rosetta found 16 organic compounds on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Further studies could shed light on whether organic materials found in comets indeed originated from the ancient clouds of gas that gave birth to the solar system.
"The next step is to see if the organic material being found in comets came from the primordial cloud that formed the solar system or if it was created later on, inside the protoplanetary disk that surrounded the young sun," said study co-author Dominique Bockelée-Morvan from Paris Observatory.
The study was published in the journal Science Advances on Oct. 23.
