Our galaxy's center contains ethyl formate, which tastes of raspberries and smells of rum.


Astronomers searching for the building blocks of life in a giant dust cloud at the heart of the Milky Way have concluded that it tastes vaguely of raspberries.

They trained their 30m radio telescope on the enormous ball of dust and gas in the hope of spotting complex molecules that are vital for life.

Sifting through thousands of signals from Sagittarius B2, they found ethyl formate, the chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries.

Curiously, ethyl formate has another distinguishing characteristic: it also smells of rum.

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