Floating near the center of our galaxy is something that sounds like it belongs in a science fiction comedy: Sagittarius B2, a molecular cloud containing enough ethyl alcohol to brew 400 trillion trillion pints of beer. To put that in perspective, every person on Earth would need to drink 300,000 pints daily for one billion years to finish it all.

This isn't your local bar's happy hour. Sagittarius B2 spans roughly 150 light-years across and contains about 3 million times the mass of our Sun. Located approximately 390 light-years from the galactic center, it's one of the largest molecular clouds in the Milky Way.

What Kind of Alcohol Are We Talking About?

The cloud contains several types of alcohol molecules, including ethyl alcohol (ethanol)—the same stuff in your drink—along with vinyl alcohol and methyl alcohol. Unfortunately, the cloud is mostly methyl alcohol, which is toxic to humans, so this cosmic cocktail would be lethal rather than intoxicating.

But here's where it gets weirder: scientists also detected ethyl formate in the cloud, an ester that gives raspberries their distinctive flavor. This discovery led astronomers to describe Sagittarius B2 as potentially smelling and tasting like "raspberry rum."

Why Does Space Have Booze Clouds?

These alcohol molecules form through complex chemical reactions in the cold, dense regions of molecular clouds. When simple molecules like carbon monoxide and hydrogen interact over millions of years, they can create more complex organic compounds, including various alcohols.

Sagittarius B2 isn't just a cosmic distillery—it's also a stellar nursery. The regions known as Sgr B2(M) and Sgr B2(N) are sites of prolific star formation, making this cloud invaluable for understanding how stars are born and how organic chemistry works in space.

Could We Actually Drink It?

Even if we could somehow harvest this space alcohol (we can't), you wouldn't want to. Besides the methyl alcohol problem, the cloud also contains:

Toxic gases and dust
Radiation from nearby star-forming regions
A vacuum environment at temperatures near absolute zero
No way to actually collect or concentrate the dispersed alcohol molecules

The alcohol in Sagittarius B2 exists as individual molecules scattered throughout the cloud, not as a liquid you could pour into a glass. The density is incredibly low—far less than the best laboratory vacuum on Earth.

Still, the discovery of alcohol and other organic compounds in space has profound implications. It suggests that the building blocks of life may be common throughout the universe, forming naturally in the cosmic soup of gas and dust between the stars. Sagittarius B2 might not be serving drinks, but it's helping scientists understand how complex chemistry—and potentially life itself—can emerge from simple cosmic ingredients.

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