The smell of the sky... the fragrance of stars from deep space
Legend has it that it's not wise for an astronaut to take off his helmet while doing any extravehicular activity such as doing a "spacewalk", because that means he's betting on his life in a very harsh and unforgiving environment, it only takes 15 seconds to He loses consciousness due to the lack of oxygen around him, and then he will die after less than a minute due to suffocation, without addressing other deadly factors such as extreme low pressure and the spread of dangerous rays coming from the sun and from the depths of the universe, not to mention the high temperature dramatically and other things that lead to human life 1 .
Therefore, over the past decades and since the first flight outside the Earth's atmosphere, which was the share of the Russian cosmonaut "Yuri Gagarin" in April of 1961, the human relationship with outer space has remained governed by strict conditions that do not yield to any concessions or indulgences.
But that did not prevent someone from breaking these strict protocols and trying to circumvent them, and perhaps asking questions that check some of the intuitions, such as asking does space have a smell? And if it has, what does it look like?
In order to answer such questions, one must understand what is the structure of space - outer space in particular - and what is the chemical nature of smells and how they interact with sensory receptors in living creatures.
Aroused by Plato, the breath of the gods that fills the void
In 360 BC, the Greek classical philosopher and mathematician "Plato" wrote one of his philosophical epics, the dialogue "Timaeus" in which he continued to talk about the nature of the material world and about man, as well as about the structure of the universe, he indicated that everything around us consists Of the four main elements, which are fire, water, air and earth, and that a combination of them in varying proportions enables us to explain the existence of the material world around us.
This theory has been known as the Four Classical Elements, and has been very popular among the philosophers for several centuries, but "Plato", while recounting his long dialogue, saw the need to add another element to the group. It seemed to him that this universe must be filled with matter that fills the spaces between the planets, stars, the sun and the earth. Otherwise, how can light travel in the void from the sun to reach us?
So he added a fifth element to the list, and called it "ether", and he interpreted it on the basis of the ancient explanations of natural phenomena, which were not based on a scientific method in explaining them, but rather on linking them to mythical stories that tell about the heroism of the Greek gods. Plato tells us in his book that the ether is the equivalent of the air that humans breathe, but the ether is breathed by the gods and permeates every corner of the universe, and the ether has a continuous circular motion that helps the stars, planets and the sun move in elliptical orbits2
In 1886, the physicists Michelson and Morley launched an experiment that demonstrated that the universe was empty of ether and that light did not need a carrier medium.
The same applies to the scientist Sir Isaac Newton, who was strongly in favor of the existence of an etheric substance that supports his theory of gravity, and this was evident in a letter sent to the British scientist Robert Boyle, who was fifteen years older than him, and Newton was based on five principles. For the existence of the ether, he also sought to explain its relationship to the regular movement of the planets under the influence of the force of gravity 3 .
In 1864, Scottish scientist James Maxwell published a research paper called "The Dynamic Theory of the Electromagnetic Field", in which he referred to his famous four equations in electromagnetism, and gave an explanation that light is nothing but an electromagnetic phenomenon that travels in the universe in a wave - as motion Waves - Similar to sound waves that need a medium such as air or water to travel. So it seemed to be the case for light in need of a medium for its transmission in space, and that other evidence supports the theory of the existence of ether in the universe.
The race of light... an experiment that breaks down Plato's theory
The existence of the ether or not was an urgent need for scientific experiments instead of theories and mathematical equations that deal with data that may be missing some factors, so two American scientists, "Albert Michelson" and "Edward Morley", decided at the end of the nineteenth century to conduct an experiment to measure the effect of a substance Ether on the movement of the earth around the sun.
So in 1886, they invented a very precise device that separates a beam of light into two slits with two paths of equal distance, as one path is in the direction of the Earth’s rotation around the sun and another path is perpendicular to the first, and then they reverse them with a mirror for both paths and return them to the starting point to fall on one plate, and after The device calculates the time difference from the moment the two beams arrive.
This is assuming that the path parallel to the path of the earth’s rotation around the sun has the advantage to arrive first due to the flow of the earth in the ether field, which gives it the characteristic of the etheric current, which is similar to the air current when ships are moving in some direction.
The theory of special relativity has changed our understanding of space-time, and how it is affected by the change of the reference system and the movement of the observer while the speed of light remains constant.
This is somewhat similar to the movement of swimmers who set out in two perpendicular paths, one of which walked in a direction parallel to the movement of the river's flow, and the other walked perpendicular to the first path. The movement of the water flow simulates the effect of the ether with respect to the two rays. And if there is any change in the time of arrival of the two rays, this will be the first real evidence of the existence of aether in the universe.
But the shock came to them when they found that there was no change in the speed of the two beams and that they had arrived together at the same moment. So we guessed that the speed of light is constant no matter how the speed of the source from which it was launched changes, and that the ether would not have tangible evidence yet, or perhaps it does not exist at all, which raised the scientific community at the time 4 .
Albert Einstein... the last nail in the coffin of the ether theory
Perhaps you did not find the theory of the ether better than the German scientist “Albert Einstein” in order to refute it and uproot it forever, after he dealt a fatal blow with his theory of relativity, which relied on a different model of the universe, which contradicted the old model that was based on the existence of the ether.
On May 5, 1920, specifically at the University of "Leiden" in the western Netherlands, Einstein delivered a speech entitled "The Relationship between the Ether and the Theory of Relativity", in which he relied on several experiments and theories developed by others that contradict the importance of the existence of the ether in the universe.
Space is not empty or nothing, the entire universe is full of electromagnetic rays, gravitational fields, and neutrinos.
Einstein says: We can say that we do not need the ether at all, because electromagnetic fields are not based on a material medium for their existence to be achieved, but rather they are independent of themselves in their simplest structure. This concept is plausible from Lorentz's theory, which describes electromagnetic rays as perceptible matter - that is, their properties can be calculated - as they bring with them energy and momentum (impulse in mechanical physics is the integration of force with respect to time). According to the special theory of relativity, both matter and rays are special forms of energy 5 .
In this way, the theory of the aether collapsed, leaving a large gap for a critical question, what then fills this vast universe?
Electromagnetic rays... Chaos fills the empty belly of space
Today, of course, we have a good view, or to say a more accurate view than it was two thousand years ago, so we can say that outer space is empty, from the human perspective, which is accustomed to a medium full of air atoms represented by nitrogen gas, oxygen, water vapor, carbon dioxide and the rest of the gases.
And if we make a quick comparison between the two means, we will find that one cubic meter contains a trillion trillion atomic particles on the surface of the planet (the number 10 and in front of it is 24 zeros), but in outer space, this number collapses sharply when the effect of gravity diminishes, we find that in the cubic meter One is only 10 atoms, according to the estimation of astronomers.
Can we smell space?
So it seems logical to us to say that space is a vacuum or almost empty if we talk from the perspective of comparing the density of atoms in both places. On the other hand, we should be careful when talking about vacuum. Space is actually not empty or nothing. The entire universe is full of electromagnetic rays, gravitational fields, volatile neutrons, the Higgs field, and space-time curvatures. However, we will not address that in this article, and we will only describe space The exterior is almost empty of atoms that transmit smells as well as sound, which is what we are concerned with here.
The threads of smell.. the breath of materials flying to our nostrils
From amber, floral notes, mangoes and strawberries to burnt wood, the scent emanates from the air that reaches our nostrils, all of which share unique scents that distinguish themselves from others.
Scientists describe odors as chemical molecules with special atomic structures that substances release into the air or into the water and travel from one place to another, eventually reaching the sensors in the noses, which are known as olfactory neurons.
What is surprising is that researchers today are still on the journey to find a scientific classification that can be adopted in separating smells from each other, for example, sounds can be distinguished according to high frequency and low frequency, as well as colors, as they can be distinguished according to wavelengths, and smells are more challenging than others.
The astronaut smells particles carrying the smell of space scattered around the craft after they stick to his suit and return inside the craft
Scientists have studied the possibility of classifying scents according to their chemical composition, says Tatiana Sharpe, associate professor at the Salk Institute in the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, but it turns out that perfumes with very similar chemical composition can have different scents6 .
Smells, like sound, need a medium to be transmitted, and there is no better medium on the surface of the earth than the atoms of air that carry smells and move them around, and this is what outer space lacks and is rare.
Bacon and burnt gunpowder... the smell of outer space
Space, as mentioned, is not nothingness in its entirety, and perhaps we find abundant numbers of atoms scattered close to the Earth’s atmosphere, where the international spacecraft flies at an altitude of 400 km above sea level, swimming with those atoms in the floating space stuck at the same time in the Earth’s gravity trap. , and that this would give us a chance, even if it was small, to get to know the smell of space near the Earth.
From time to time, astronauts conduct activities outside the space station to carry out maintenance, installation, or other matters that require direct human intervention. And because this work may take long hours depending on the nature of the mission, it makes the astronaut’s suit directly exposed to the particles carrying the smell of space scattered around the vehicle, forcing it to stick to the suit from the outside, and when returning to the station, the astronauts remove their suits so that they are then able to They smell the lingering scent.
Surprisingly, American astronaut Thomas Jones, who spent 53 days in total, says: The smell of space seems sharp, as it resembles burnt gunpowder or burning matches.
The smell of space is due to the "polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons" floating in space from the stars
Another astronaut, "Tony Antonelli," testifies, describing space as smelling different from anything else he's seen 7 .
While astronaut Donald Pettitt shows a more detailed side of this, he says: Every time I return to the craft through the cabin decompression compartment, when I take off my helmet, I find a strange smell that tickles my sense of smell.
Then he continues: "At first I couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from. I thought it was coming from the cabin pressure air ducts. Then I noticed that this smell was on our suits, helmets, gloves and tools, and it was more noticeable on fabrics than on metal or plastic surfaces."
It's hard to describe, maybe the best description I can come up with is the smell of metal, it reminded me of those moments in the summer when I was in college where I worked many hours on a welding machine repairing heavy equipment, it reminded me of welding steam, which smelled liked to me , This is what space smells like 8 .
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.. nuclear star explosions
It seems quite logical if we link the reason for the existence of this smell to nuclear explosions that occur in stars and in the sun, comments "Luis Alamandola" - Director of the Laboratory for Physics and Astrochemistry at the NASA Ames Research Center - in an interview with the scientific journal (Popular Science) says in it: The reason for this smell is due to "polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons" that float in space, and these hydrocarbons can be found in tobacco smoke, car exhaust, and sometimes in burning foods.
NASA launches its own fragrance called "Eau de Space"
However, another statement from NASA's space laboratories suggests another explanation, which is that the materials, due to exposure to the vacuum in space, can interact strongly with the oxygen that is being supplied again in a spacecraft. This is similar to the process of burning materials in the open air, which is known as the oxidation process, but at a much faster rate in the space station, and this gives an explanation for the burning characteristic of the smell of space 9 .
Eau de Space..a perfume with the smell of space
The English writer William Shakespeare says in the second scene of the play "Romeo and Juliet": The rose - even if its names have changed - has the same fragrant smell.
As well as space, no matter how many attributes and names to describe its smell, it will always remain distinctive, bearing the same flavor and character, which is what prompted NASA to launch its own perfume called “Eau de Space”, after it developed it for decades with the help of specialists to give the most accurate smell matching. for the smell of space. As production director Matt Richmond recently pointed out to CNN: The scent smells like what astronauts describe as a mixture of gunpowder, grilled steak, berries and rum 10 .
This product is available today and can be accessed by ordering it through their own site, so that you can smell the space while reclining on your sofa in your home.
Sources:
[1] Ludsser, Rob (2017). Here's how long humans can live in space without wearing a space suit. Retrieved from: www.businessinsider.com
[2] Plato. Timaeus, translation: Benjamin Jowett. p35
[3] Newton, Isaac (1679). Isaac Newton's letter to Boyle, regarding the cosmic ether in space. Retrieved from: http://www.orgonelab.org/
[4] Fowler, Michael. Mickelson and Morley experiment. Retrieved from: www.galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu
[5] Einstein, Albert (1920). Einstein: Aether and Relativity, translating the same website from German into English. Retrieved from: www.mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk
[6] Salk Institute (2018). What is this smell? Scientists find a new way to understand smells: a mathematical model that reveals a map of smells from the natural environment. Retrieved from: www.sciencedaily.com
[7] Fisher, Christine (2020). NASA's "Space Scent" is available as a fragrance. Retrieved from: www.engadget.com
[8] Harrington, Rebecca (2016). Space smells like metal or seared steak — here's why. Retrieved from: www.businessinsider.com
[9] Schiffman, Lizzie (2016). What is the smell of space? Retrieved from: www.popsci.com
[10] Smith, Lily (2020). You can now smell the scent of space with this new fragrance inspired by NASA. Retrieved from: www.fastcompany.com
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