Milky Way 'Could Taste Of Raspberries'
By Dave Reneke
Astronomers testing a giant dust cloud at the heart of the Milky Way have found that it might taste of raspberries. Really!
Radio Astronomers in Bonn, Germany, were searching space for evidence of amino acids – the basic chemicals from which life is created. Despite failing to locate any such aminos, they did find a substance called ethyl formate, the chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries.
Curiously, ethyl formate has another distinguishing characteristic that will appeal to a lot of our readers (it did to me) - it also smells of rum.
The astronomers used the IRAM telescope in Spain to analyse radiation emitted by a hot and dense region of an area close to the Milky Way’s centre called Sagittarius B2 A. “This gas cloud surrounds a newborn star,” said astronomer Dave Reneke, news editor of Sky and Space magazine. “Radiation from the star is absorbed by molecules floating around in the gas cloud which is then re-emitted at different energies telling astronomers what it’s all made up of.”
While scouring their data, the team found ethyl formate as well as evidence for the deadly chemical propyl cyanide in the same cloud. The two molecules are the largest yet discovered in deep space and are part of the essential building blocks of life.
So, would this material in the Milky Way really taste like raspberries if you could munch on it? “Sure,” said Dave. “Ethyl formate does happen to give raspberries their flavour, but there are many other molecules that are needed to actually make space raspberries,”
Last year, the same team of astronomers came tantalisingly close to finding amino acids in space with the discovery of a molecule that can be used to make them. If you remember your high schools science, amino acids build protein, protein builds tissue … and that makes people, like you and I! Tasty huh?
Email: Dave.Reneke@
