'Party' comet that naturally releases a cocktail of alcohol and sugar found

Researchers have identified a comet that leaves behind a “happy hour” trail of alcohol and sugar as it travels through space, according to a study published in the journal Science Advances.

Comet Lovejoy

Comet C/2014 Q2, more commonly (and aptly) known as comet Lovejoy, is the first comet that’s known to contain ethyl alcohol—which can be found in alcoholic drinks—and a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde among its complex organic molecules (COMs).

More common COMs found on comets include ethylene glycol and glycine. Including ethyl alcohol and glycolaldehyde, comet Lovejoy has 21 molecules.

Data on Lovejoy was gathered using the 30 m telescope at the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) in Spain, from 13-16 and 23-26 January 2015. This was the period when the comet was at its brightest and most productive. It was 0.6 astronomical units (AU) away from Earth and 1.3 AU away from the sun.

500 bottles of wine per second

“We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity,” said the study’s lead author, Nicolas Biver of the Paris Observatory, in a press release. At this point, Lovejoy was also producing more 20 metric tons of water per second.

The findings of the current study support the theory that COMs found on comets could have helped kickstart life on Earth.

“During the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.8 billion years ago, when many comets and asteroids were blasting into Earth and we were getting our first oceans, life didn’t have to start with just simple molecules like water, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen,” said Stefanie Milam of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, one of the study’s co-authors. “Instead, life had something that was much more sophisticated on a molecular level.” — Bea Montenegro/TJD, GMA News