{"id":123112,"date":"2025-08-06T08:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T08:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123112\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T08:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T08:16:09","slug":"scientists-have-brewed-a-super-alcohol-theorized-to-exist-in-deep-space-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/123112\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Have Brewed a ‘Super Alcohol’ Theorized to Exist in Deep Space : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

By recreating extreme conditions found inside deep space interstellar clouds<\/a>, scientists have produced methanetetrol, or C(OH)4 \u2013 a ‘super alcohol’ that was long theorized about but never actually seen before.<\/p>\n

This is not the kind of alcohol you can ask for in a cocktail<\/a>: it’s a highly unstable molecule made up of four hydroxyl groups (OH) at a single carbon atom. Its existence was first predicted more than a century ago.<\/p>\n

To finally prove that prediction correct, an international team of researchers created artificial space ice<\/a> in a lab, freezing carbon dioxide and water down to ultra-cold temperatures in a vacuum.<\/p>\n

Related: The Largest Alcohol Molecule Found in Space Yet May Be The Key to Star Formation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

By bombarding this ice with high-energy radiation blasts \u2013 intended to mimic the cosmic rays from stars and supernovae that zoom through space \u2013 it kicked off a chemical reaction that eventually led to methanetetrol.<\/p>\n

“The detection of methanetetrol in space-simulation experiments demonstrates that the interstellar medium is host to an unanticipated and counterintuitive chemistry that demands scientific attention,” write<\/a> the researchers in their published paper.<\/p>\n

It’s a discovery that opens up a wealth of new possibilities about the chemical reactions that could be happening in deep space<\/a>, including the freezing cold bundles of ice and dust that are interstellar clouds, lingering between stars.<\/p>\n

\"MethanetetrolThe researchers heated the ice until methanetetrol (bottom left) was detected. (Marks et al., Nat. Commun., 2025)<\/p>\n

If methanetetrol can form, then what other ‘impossible’ molecules could be out there? And how might this influence the chemistry and physics of space that have already been outlined<\/a> in previous research?<\/p>\n

In particular, the researchers think that their findings could be vital in the future study of other lifeforms out in the Universe<\/a>, and how they might get started \u2013 not just through this molecule, but others it might lead us to.<\/p>\n

“This molecule’s identification here represents a blind spot and the lack of its detection to date in the terrestrial environment is evidence of the counter-intuitive chemistry of the interstellar medium and justification for its promotion,” write<\/a> the researchers.<\/p>\n

One of the next steps worth taking is to see if we can spot methanetetrol out in its natural habitat of deep space \u2013 as it’s far too unstable to exist on Earth. Thanks to this latest research, astronomers now have a better idea of what they’re looking for<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Detecting it isn’t going to be easy though. Methanetetrol breaks apart very quickly when it’s hit with light, a process known as dissociative photoionization, and the researchers were only able to catch a fleeting glimpse of it here.<\/p>\n

There’s lots more to explore, and thanks to advances in scientific techniques and telescope imagery, we’re continuing to get a better idea of what’s beyond our own planet. Indeed, only last year<\/a> some of the same researchers discovered another ‘impossible’ molecule, called methanetriol.<\/p>\n

It’s increasingly clear that chemistry in space is not the same as chemistry on Earth. In fact, some estimates suggest we’ve only discovered around 1 percent<\/a> of the chemicals out in space \u2013 but scientists are working hard on it.<\/p>\n

“This work pushes the boundaries of what we know about chemistry in space,” says<\/a> chemist Ralf Kaiser, from the University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n

The research has been published in Nature Communications<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By recreating extreme conditions found inside deep space interstellar clouds, scientists have produced methanetetrol, or C(OH)4 \u2013 a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[352,159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-123112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-msft-content","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-space","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114980833675243732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}