February 11, 2015

Omg yum. (Credit: Thinkstock)

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

If youve ever wondered what a comet is like, go out to your favorite Mexican restaurant and order the fried ice cream. Youre welcome.

With an outer crust of crystalline ice and an interior thats highly porous, fried ice cream is great analogy for what comets are like, according a new study by NASA scientists.

The study was based on experiments with an icebox-like device called Himalaya. In the study, the scientists found that fluffy ice on the outside of a comet would crystallize and solidify as the comet travels toward the sun and gets warm. As the water-ice crystals develop, they become denser and more ordered. This causes other molecules made up of carbon to be pushed to the comets surface. The result is a crispy comet crust covered with organic dust.

The researchers said their work was inspired by recent observations made from comet probes like the European Space Agencys Rosetta and NASAs Deep Impact.

What we saw in the lab a crystalline comet crust with organics on top matches what has been suggested from observations in space, said study author Murthy Gudipati, an ice chemistry expert at NASA. Deep-fried ice cream is really the perfect analogy, because the interior of the comets should still be very cold and contain the more porous, amorphous ice.

Now were hungry for comets

In the researchers lab, the study team started with amorphous ice packs the ideal composition based on knowledge of the coldest of comets and icy moons. In this condition, water vapor molecules are quickly frozen at extremely frosty temperatures of approximately -405 degrees F.

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NASA: Comets are like fried ice cream