Space smells so weird scientists are turning it into high-tech fragrances

Space smells so weird that scientists are turning it into high-tech fragrances, so we can better learn about how space would feel to all five of the senses.

Turns out space is stinkier than you would think, but smell doesn’t work in the same way up there, so scientists down here want to show us what it would smell like if we could actually sniff with our noses.

Obviously, on a space station, you can’t just open a window and take a sniff, so astronauts on the space station would put items in a frame in the atmosphere just outside the station, and they’d come back with a distinct smell.

Space has been said to have many different smells like gunpowder, cat pee, and even raspberries, and thanks to these astronauts and their high-tech fragrances, we’re a little bit closer to understanding the stinkiness of space.

EXPLORE SBX CARS – Supercar auctions starting soon powered by Supercar Blondie

Have you ever dreamed about truly experiencing space?

This space scientist, fragrance designer, and astrobiology PhD student at London’s University of Westminster, Marina Barecenilla decided that all parts of space needed to be explored and not just with our eyes.

She realized that the more she found out about the different chemicals and atoms that made up various parts of space, the more she thought that space smells so weird that she could recreate the aromas in a lab.

So, Barecenilla and a team of scientists are bottling the smells to create high-tech fragrances, not for wearing like perfume because some are truly foul, but for smelling how stinky space is.

Apparently, the top layer of cloud that surrounds Jupiter is made up of ammonia ice, and famously, ammonia is found in urine. So, unfortunately, the top layer of Jupiter smells like cat pee.

As you go further under the layers, sulphur begins to get involved, meaning that Jupiter smells like a fun combination of cat pee and rotting eggs.

Of course, it’s possible that space smells so weird that you might not want to smell it at all.

That said, each comet, moon, and asteroid has its own distinct scent. And while smell is one of our most important senses, we often let it go underappreciated.

Apparently, your sense of smell is weird when you’re on the space station because microgravity means that hot food smells don’t rise and reach your nose, so the space station is distinctly lacking any smells.

Sometimes when astronauts are given experiments to do that involve bringing in equipment from the atmosphere outside of the space station, the equipment smells like charred meat or gunpowder.

The weirdest smell of all comes from the centre of the Milky Way, which apparently has a scent like raspberries, due to the presence of the molecule Ethyl formate.

However, one molecule does not a raspberry make, so maybe it isn’t that similar after all.

Turns out space is quite a smelly place, with some good smells and some really awful smells – ah, just like home. The post Space smells so weird scientists are turning it into high-tech fragrances appeared first on Supercar Blondie.