In the iconic movie, “Alien”, it’s said that “In space no one can hear you scream”.
But, according to NASA astronauts, while screams are silent, smells can be a bit more noticeable.
And it appears that the moon smells a bit like the 2nd amendment – it reeks, astronauts say, of gunpowder.
In a recent Space.com article, experts detailed the different scents that space travelers have encountered over the years.
While there is no air outside of the shuttles, and helmets protect them from the smelliest of odors while spacewalking, once they get back inside the spacecraft, the smells they bring with them can be quite odorous.
Space definitely has a smell that’s different than anything else,” said astronaut Dominic “Tony” Antonelli.
Astronauts from the Apollo moon landing and others who have worked on the International Space Station, have reported that the moon’s scent ranges from the smell of gunpowder and even “burnt steak,” Space.com reported.
“Everyone’s instant impression of the smell was that of spent gunpowder,” Apollo 17’s Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, who walked on the moon in 1972, said. “Spent gunpowder smell probably was much more implanted in our memories than other comparable odors.”
The gas cloud Sagittarius B2, located close to the center of the galaxy, smells of raspberry rum. Photo courtesy of NASA
Each astronaut had a different idea of what the smell made them recall.
“It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small logging outfit,” NASA astronaut Don Pettit once said. “It reminded me of pleasant sweet smelling welding fumes.”
Scientists have theorized that during spacewalks, “single atoms of oxygen can adhere to (astronaut’s) space suits.” Once the astronauts have re-entered the spacecraft, they said, and the atoms get repressurized, oxygen “floods into the airlock and combines with the single oxygen atoms to form ozone,” which allows the astronauts to smell the scents of space.
The burnt steak odor, scientists said to Space.com, is likely caused by “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which is often found in burnt food. The PAHs, they aid, “occur routinely in space.”
Another interesting scent that astronauts reported was the smell of alcohol.
One gas cloud in particular, scientists told Space.com, is less than 400 light-years from the center of our Milky Way and has an “abundance of ethyl alcohol.” Ethyl alcohol is used to make beer, giving the gas cloud its unique boozy scent.
Comets are surrounded by a halo of molecules that smell of rotten eggs. Photo by NASA
When trying to capture the smell of space, a NASA chemist, Steve Pearce, attempted to develop a perfume: Eau de Space. The scent was marketed to smell like a mix of “gunpowder, seared steak, raspberries and rum.”
A 2014 study discovered that a comet, too far to travel to, was covered in hydrogen sulfide and ammonia molecules, which smells like a not-so pleasant scent of “rotten eggs and urine,” said Space.com.
While most of us would not want to smell these odors, scientists do say that the smells are likely too weak to cause any issues.
I guess, as much as we like to think we know about space, even I didn’t expect it to smell like these scents!
Watch below for a more in depth look at the scents found in space!
