A Sniff of Space

“In space no one can hear you scream.” No one can smell you either… Until now! Louis Allamandola, the founder and director of the Astrophysics and Astrochemistry Lab at NASA’s Ames Research Center, has been running tests seeing what “the final frontier” smells come from. She and her team said that the odors from space are from dying stars and the stinky compounds are called polycyclic aromatic hydro carbons. Whew! That’s a long name.

What you’ve all been waiting for! Space smells like…whatever you think it smells like. Some astronauts claimed that they smelled ‘burned” or “fried” steak. Others have said it smelled like hot metal, diesel fumes, and barbecue! Scientists also said that if you leave our galaxy, then you could smell more exotic smells, like sweet sugar or sulfur.

So far there has been no test to see what it resembles the most. There has only been first hand accounts.

So if you want to smell something funky, then jump on a rocket and smell some space! (Don’t really do it, you would die!)

-Jason F