Experts reveal what space really SMELLS like – and Uranus stinks of farts

WHILE you cannot hear anything in near-empty regions of space – that doesn’t make it odourless.

Quite the opposite in fact, according to those who have return to Earth to tell the tales.

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The universe emits various different smells depending on which corner of our never-ending universe you are, according to Space.com, which collated descriptions from different space expeditions over the decades.

Gunpowder

Astronauts that were a part of the Apollo moon landings often commented on a gunpowder-like smell.

While astronauts can’t smell space outside of a spacecraft – otherwise they’d die – smells do become apparent once they have returned to the airlock and removed their helmets.

Burnt meat

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station not only reported the smell of gunpower, but also that of burnt steak, after returning from spacewalks.

Metal

Numerous astronauts have noted sour, metallic smells.

According to scientists, the source of the metallic, burnt meat stink can be attributed to Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

These are the same organic molecules that are found in charred foods here on Earth and often occur in outer space.

Booze

Some astronauts have smelt booze – more specifically rum – after a spacewalk.

This has been attributed to a Sagittarius B2, a massive dust cloud in the centre of our galaxy, that contains large amounts of alcohol, including vinyl alcohol, methanol and ethanol.

Rotten eggs, urine and almonds

A comet spotted by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft in 2014, dubbed 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is understood to smell of rotten eggs and urine.

Scientists detected a variety of molecules on the stinky space rock – and there were three that stuck out.

The first was hydrogen sulfide – the molecule that give rotting eggs or farts their stench.

The second was ammonia, which is reminiscent of the smell of urine.

And then there was hydrogen cyanide which – despite its toxic nature – has a more appealing almond-like smell.

Farts

Now, we’ll refrain from Uranus jokes.

But it turns out the planet smells strongly of flatulence, an Oxford University study revealed in 2018.

Uranus’ upper atmosphere is made up of hydrogen sulfide – the same molecule found on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – that stinks of farts.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk