Monday, May 2, 2011

Alcohol in Outer Space?!


Sure there is alcohol in outer space! But those of you who are already brainstorming  a marketing scheme for a new drink called "intergalactic buzz" and a practical way of retrieving your new million dollar idea are going to be sadly disappointed. Alcohol exists in both liquid and gaseous state in space, but a majority of what we find is methanol, which unlike is cousin ethanol (found in alcoholic drinks), is not safe to consume.

Pictured above is a region of outer space that contains methanol masers. The masers are the bluish white dots and basically jets of liquid alcohol flying towards us. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, also contains a good amount of methanol (and a little liquid ethanol) on it's surface. It's thought that this moon may have liquid alcohol lakes but the alcohols are mixed together and also cause acid rain.  There is a possibility that some sort of life exists on Titan, and it may be alcohol dependant because of its environment. Maybe if we humans travel to titan someday we will find a thriving civilization of drunk people. Hey, you never know!