Space is Full of Dirty, Toxic Grease, Scientists Reveal (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: It looks cold, dark and empty, but astronomers have revealed that interstellar space is permeated with a fine mist of grease-like molecules. The study provides the most precise estimate yet of the amount of "space grease" in the Milky Way, by recreating the carbon-based compounds in the laboratory. The Australian-Turkish team discovered more than expected: 10 billion trillion trillion tonnes of gloop, or enough for 40 trillion trillion trillion packs of butter. Prof Tim Schmidt, a chemist at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and co-author of the study, said that the windscreen of a future spaceship travelling through interstellar space might be expected to get a sticky coating. "Amongst other stuff it'll run into is interstellar dust, which is partly grease, partly soot and partly silicates like sand," he said, adding that the grease is swept away within our own solar system by the solar wind. The findings bring scientists closer to figuring out the total amount of carbon in interstellar space, which fuels the formation of stars, planets and is essential for life.

Comments

Re:Mist? How?

[HiThere]

Gravity wouldn't be important, but electromagnetic interactions would be. I'd expect that you'd find both globs and a fine mist, possibly with different components.

OTOH, if these carbon compounds are very light weight (as is likely with little UV to cause them to polymerize) then they'd be likely to evaporate from the globs. (Check what happens to plastics exposed to vacuum. They become brittle because the plasticizers evaporate.)

Re:I guess Bussard Ramjets are impossible

[HiThere]

Well, I've seen other claims that Bussard Ramjets are impossible, but since we don't have controlled fusion yet they can't be properly evaluated.

OTOH, this could make it work even better. Carbon is a catalyst in some reactions that fuse Hydrogen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...