(CNN) Space is full of grease-like molecules, according to a new study that attempted to mimic interstellar dust in a laboratory. 
 
 The study, conducted by the University of New South Wales in Australia and Ege University in Turkey, sought to better estimate how much organic matter is in space, giving scientists greater insight into how life is formed. 
 
 A team of eight scientists recreated and analyzed material similar to interstellar dust, and used it to estimated how many grease-like carbon molecules (scientifically known as aliphatic carbon) are in interstellar space, beyond the bounds of our solar system. 
 
 The estimated amount of "space grease" in the Milky Way far exceeded expectations: 10 billion trillion trillion tonnes -- or enough to fill 40 trillion trillion trillion packs of butter. 
 
 NASA's Curiosity rover has found organic matter in the soil on Mars 
 
 Space is not just greasy, but dirty, said Tim Schmidt, co-author of the study and professor at UNSW. 
 
 Read More ||||| There is considerable uncertainty as to the amount of carbon incorporated in interstellar dust. The aliphatic component of the carbonaceous dust is of particular interest because it produces a significant 3.4 μm absorption feature when viewed against a background radiation source. The optical depth of the 3.4 μm absorption feature is related to the number of aliphatic carbon C-H bonds along the line of sight. It is possible to estimate the column density of carbon locked up in the aliphatic hydrocarbon component of interstellar dust from quantitative analysis of the 3.4 μm interstellar absorption feature providing that the absorption coefficient of aliphatic hydrocarbons incorporated in the interstellar dust is known. We report laboratory analogues of interstellar dust by experimentally mimicking interstellar/circumstellar conditions. The resultant spectra of these dust analogues closely match those from astronomical observations. Measurements of the absorption coefficient of aliphatic hydrocarbons incorporated in the analogues were carried out by a procedure combining FTIR and 13C NMR spectroscopies. The absorption coefficients obtained for both interstellar analogues were found to be in close agreement (4.76(8) × 10−18 cm group−1 and 4.69(14) × 10−18 cm group−1), less than half those obtained in studies using small aliphatic molecules. The results thus obtained permit direct calibration of the astronomical observations, providing rigorous estimates of the amount of aliphatic carbon in the interstellar medium. ||||| Research to calculate amount of ‘space grease’ in the Milky Way found enough for 40 trillion trillion trillion packs of butter 
 
 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. 
 
 Until now there has been uncertainty over how much carbon is drifting between the stars. About half is expected to be found in its pure form. The rest is chemically bound with hydrogen in either a grease-like form, known as aliphatic carbon, or as a gaseous version of naphthalene, the main chemical component of mothballs. 
 
 To tackle the question, Schmidt and colleagues recreated in the laboratory the process by which greasy carbon forms in the outflows of carbon stars. The material was collected and analysed using spectroscopy to work out how strongly it absorbed light of certain wavelengths. 
 
 “This allowed us to figure out how much greasy carbon is in the line of sight of various stars,” said Schmidt. 
 
 They found that there are about 100 greasy carbon atoms for every million hydrogen atoms, accounting for between a quarter and a half of the available carbon in the Milky Way. 
 
 “This space grease is not the kind of thing you’d want to spread on a slice of toast,” said Schmidt. “It’s dirty, likely toxic and only forms in the environment of interstellar space – and our laboratory.” 
 
 The team now plans to determine the abundance of the mothball-like carbon, which will involve more laboratory experiments. By firmly establishing the amount of each type of carbon in the dust, they will know precisely how much of this element is available to create life. “It’s part of understanding the great life-cycle of carbon,” said Schmidt. “It’s made in stars, goes through the interstellar medium and gets incorporated into new planetary systems and has ended up incorporated into life. It’s part of the big story, the biggest story there is.” 
 
 Helen Fraser, a senior lecturer in astronomy at the Open University, said: “It remains a major question in astronomy how dust forms, evolves and is destroyed.” 
 
 Fraser said the work suggests that are many more “grease-like” molecules in space than previously thought. “The consequence could be important in how such dust grains stick and form planets, or even ‘seed’ planetary surfaces with the ingredients for the origins of life,” she added. 
 
 The findings were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
– President Trump's "Space Force" might need to carry some heavy-duty cleaning products. A team of astronomers has determined that the universe is a much greasier and dirtier place than once thought, with grease-like molecules known as aliphatic carbon thinly spread throughout interstellar space, the Guardian reports. As part of a project to calculate the amount of carbon—essential for the formation of planets and life—that exists between the stars, the astronomers recreated the interstellar dust generated by carbon stars and discovered that the Milky Way alone holds around 10 billion trillion trillion tons of "space grease." Solar wind keeps much of it out of our solar system, but any spacecraft travelling between the stars is likely to arrive with a sticky, dirty coating of carbon. "This space grease is not the kind of thing you'd want to spread on a slice of toast," says study co-author Tim Schmidt of the University of New South Wales. "It's dirty, likely toxic and only forms in the environment of interstellar space—and our laboratory." Schmidt tells CNN that the substance is like greasy soot. "It's not a pure substance, it's not biological," he says. "It would make things dirty like soot would." About half the carbon in space is thought to be elemental carbon. The team, whose research is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, now plans to calculate how much of the third form of interstellar carbon, aromatic "mothball" carbon, exists in our galaxy. (A black hole "farm" has been detected at the center of the Milky Way.)