Scientists studying renowned Comet Lovejoy have found that the celestial object is spewing copious amounts of alcohol and a type of sugar into space, according to NASA.

Comet Lovejoy on February 22, 2015.

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"We found that comet Lovejoy was releasing as much alcohol as in at least 500 bottles of wine every second during its peak activity," said Nicolas Biver from the Paris Observatory and lead author of the paper published in Science Advances.It’s the first time a comet has been observed emitting the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. Along with ethyl alcohol, Lovejoy is releasing 21 different organic molecules in gas from the comet including a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde.One of the brightest comets since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, Lovejoy (known as C/2014 Q2) also released water at the rate of 20 tons per second when it survived a close flyby of the sun in January.The scientists observed a microwave glow when they studied the comet’s atmosphere during the flyby, allowing them to analyze and identify the different molecules.Not only do comets hold clues to how the solar system was made, some scientists hypothesize that comet impacts on early Earth deposited organic molecules that may have helped in the origin of life. The research team believes the latest findings of complex molecules in Lovejoy adds support to the hypothesis."The result definitely promotes the idea the comets carry very complex chemistry," said Stefanie Milam from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and a co-author on the paper. "During the Late Heavy Bombardment about 3.8 billion years ago, when many comets and asteroids were blasting into Earth and we were getting our first oceans, life didn't have to start with just simple molecules like water, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen.“Instead, life had something that was much more sophisticated on a molecular level,” he said. “We're finding molecules with multiple carbon atoms. So now you can see where sugars start forming, as well as more complex organics such as amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- or nucleobases, the building blocks of DNA. These can start forming much easier than beginning with molecules with only two or three atoms."Image Credit: Nicolas Biver

Jenna Pitcher is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter