*was sat in the car with the kids, I’d like to blame them for this – 100% me 😳

The sun itself doesn’t have a smell since it is a massive ball of hot plasma emitting light and energy, with no physical substance for scent molecules to travel through space. However, astronauts returning from space have described a particular “smell” associated with their spacesuits after spacewalks. This scent is often compared to burning metal, hot metal, or welding fumes. It likely comes from particles of high-energy ions and radiation interacting with the suits in the vacuum of space.

The sun, in essence, doesn’t produce a smell that we can detect here on Earth, but space itself has been associated with distinctive scents by those who have been in orbit.

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What’s the worst smelling thing in space?

One of the worst smells in space comes from certain celestial objects, like comets or some of the moons in our solar system. For instance:

1. Comets: When comets pass close to the sun, they release gases like hydrogen sulfide (which smells like rotten eggs) and ammonia (which smells like urine). The combination of these gases would make a comet quite pungent.
2. Io (Jupiter’s Moon): Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, is covered in volcanic activity that emits large amounts of sulfur dioxide and other sulfur compounds. These substances are known for their intense “rotten egg” smell.
3. The Center of the Milky Way: A study detected ethyl formate, the compound responsible for the smell of raspberries and rum, in the dust clouds near the center of the galaxy. However, that same region contains large quantities of hydrogen cyanide, which is poisonous and would smell like bitter almonds—certainly not a pleasant aroma.

While humans can’t smell these things directly due to the vacuum of space, if we could, they would likely be some of the worst odors imaginable!

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