Lovejoy (comet) is sauced

[Scotius]

Why not ? Chemistry is also about the good stuff... (ofc not just liquor or intoxicants).

Along that, could there be ester ? Maybe space smells good actually ? Also, how do they know what kind of molecules they're looking at ? NMR ? Or usual spectrum at radio wavelengths ?

I've read somewhere that space actually stinks. Some astronauts reported a unpleasant smell similiar to overheated copper cables lingering in the airlocks and near their spacesuits. Maybe it was an artifact of degassing happening in the vacuum? But don't quote me on that - it was a while ago and i don't remember the source.

[lajoswinkler]

Oh, believe me - i know what anthropocentis is, and how it can cloud our judgement. But it is exactly the point: we fall in this trap, because we don't have any other point of reference. Until we find a trace of life outside the Earth, only then we will know if our carbon\water constitution is the only possible or not. (I did not mention oxygen, because we know already, that at least that is not a strict requirement for a living organism.) Or is only Earth-like environment hospitable for life. Until then, well...anthropocentrism it is - because we don't have anything else.

Carbon based biochemistry is not anthropocentric because of the laws of nature distilled into element properties. If there's carbon, life won't be formed out of something else because it will, as everything does, follow the easiest way.

Anthropocentrism is saying the planet is tailored for us, which is wrong. We're the product of it.

Well lets go through this. In the beggining sort of

The sun is made of atoms lots of atoms mostly hydrogen in that beggining most of the heavy stuff sorts to the center and hydrogen to the exterior, like Jupiter, but then the sun fires, poof and this is produces a much higher intensity of light, and specifically blue and ultraviolet light

So if you are a carbon atom lofting around you are going to be, basically ionized :C:, carbon gas. Next solar winds blows by with what H: and H+ so you form mainly CH4. But there is also running around so sometimes you form CH3O and this binds an H to form methanol. Sometimes you form H3CCOH, ethanol, sometimes HOH2CCOH, sugar. All a sugar is an aldehyde or ketone at any carbon and hydroxyl groups at all other carbons.

So the bottom line here is that if you ionize alot of space dust, then allow molecularization, molecules form

So then the next question, the earth accretes, does this ionize space dust, sure it does. Your deep fat fryer or food in you oven begins to brown at 425'F (218) C. That browning you see on your cookies, that is ionization, visible, many bonds ionize at much lower temperatures, most break by about 400'C. So did molecules on earth ionize, they most certainly did. In addition the surface is virtually unprotected from the suns radiation for a long period as gas/liquid/solid separation occurs.

Browning is not ionization. It's usually Maillard reaction i.e. amino acid and reducing sugar organic chemical reaction. I don't really see how does ionization play a role in this. It's as if you're trying to describe tholin synthesis, but then divert to browning, but those are two very different things.

Most of these molecules decompose under extreme heat of planetary formation. You have to wait for planet's surface to cool down before complex organic molecules can be formed or deposited.

And comet impacts are not hot? Those events are, if anything, both sterilizing and pyrolizing events. I'd say the vast majority of the compounds in question were there from the beginning and were refluxing as aeons went by.

I've read somewhere that space actually stinks. Some astronauts reported a unpleasant smell similiar to overheated copper cables lingering in the airlocks and near their spacesuits. Maybe it was an artifact of degassing happening in the vacuum? But don't quote me on that - it was a while ago and i don't remember the source.

I've read about gunpowder-like smell (sounds like sulfur(IV) oxide) when Apollo astronauts would get back in the lander and pressurize it which was probably regolith aerosol reacting with the moisture and nasal mucosa.

Rubber degassing would be a fair explanation of the smell you're describing.

[PB666]

Carbon based biochemistry is not anthropocentric because of the laws of nature distilled into element properties. If there's carbon, life won't be formed out of something else because it will, as everything does, follow the easiest way.

Anthropocentrism is saying the planet is tailored for us, which is wrong. We're the product of it.

Browning is not ionization. It's usually Maillard reaction i.e. amino acid and reducing sugar organic chemical reaction. I don't really see how does ionization play a role in this. It's as if you're trying to describe tholin synthesis, but then divert to browning, but those are two very different things.

And comet impacts are not hot? Those events are, if anything, both sterilizing and pyrolizing events. I'd say the vast majority of the compounds in question were there from the beginning and were refluxing as aeons went by.

I've read about gunpowder-like smell (sounds like sulfur(IV) oxide) when Apollo astronauts would get back in the lander and pressurize it which was probably regolith aerosol reacting with the moisture and nasal mucosa.

Rubber degassing would be a fair explanation of the smell you're describing.

If you take a metal and clean it with generous molarity of HCL the fresh exposed metal has a sulfery smell to it. THis i believe because so3 and so2 in the air undergo reduction on the surface. CO2 replaces sulfudes on the surface to form metal carbonates. When you heat or degas a metal you then pull the carbonates of and the metals will be reactive again.

The polyvalent anions tend to protect the surfaces from further oxidation.

[K^2]

And comet impacts are not hot? Those events are, if anything, both sterilizing and pyrolizing events. I'd say the vast majority of the compounds in question were there from the beginning and were refluxing as aeons went by.

Yes, I am sure you understand these things better than people who studied the subject for decades. The only mystery to us all is why you have not published your revolutionary findings yet.

Of course, if you spend a little time researching the subject, you will learn that fairly large chunks of rock end up on earth intact in routine meteorite impacts. That rock and ice are both excellent thermal insulators. That interior of the meteorite never heats up significantly during its brief decent through atmosphere unless meteorite breaks up, and finally, that we have found organic compounds in meteorites that landed on Earth. Including compounds that denature at modest temperature.

Oh, and organics, the kind necessary for life, most certainly denature at molten-rock-everywhere temperatures. Some take a while, but these were conditions for millions of years. Not the few seconds of a comet strike.

[lajoswinkler]

If you take a metal and clean it with generous molarity of HCL the fresh exposed metal has a sulfery smell to it. THis i believe because so3 and so2 in the air undergo reduction on the surface. CO2 replaces sulfudes on the surface to form metal carbonates. When you heat or degas a metal you then pull the carbonates of and the metals will be reactive again.

The polyvalent anions tend to protect the surfaces from further oxidation.

Not every metal and it's not sulfury smell, but weird fishy one. It's mostly phosphine. I know exactly what you're talking about. It happens a lot with steel, aluminium and zinc. They contain traces of phosphides. Quite unavoidable stuff and even the slightest traces will be obvious because our noses are highly sensitive to it.

Yes, I am sure you understand these things better than people who studied the subject for decades. The only mystery to us all is why you have not published your revolutionary findings yet.

Of course, if you spend a little time researching the subject, you will learn that fairly large chunks of rock end up on earth intact in routine meteorite impacts. That rock and ice are both excellent thermal insulators. That interior of the meteorite never heats up significantly during its brief decent through atmosphere unless meteorite breaks up, and finally, that we have found organic compounds in meteorites that landed on Earth. Including compounds that denature at modest temperature.

Oh, and organics, the kind necessary for life, most certainly denature at molten-rock-everywhere temperatures. Some take a while, but these were conditions for millions of years. Not the few seconds of a comet strike.

Wow, who stepped on your balls?

Really, this is survivable? Really? In impact that basically turns a part of the lithosphere into plasma, along with the lump that did it, and stresses the lower parts into another crystal modifications?

I'm talking about pieces large enough to bring decent amount of materials, not peanuts. All the tiny crap that rains on a daily basis (or rained) is nothing compared to decent chunks that brings orders of magnitude more than all of those peanuts together. Once upon a time such impacts were a daily event. It's ridiculous to think anything organic can survive such impact.