Scientists Find Mega-Oil Field ... 1,300 Light Years Away

Scientists Find Mega-Oil Field ... 1,300 Light Years Away

Have our wishes been answered? Scientists have found an oil field which contains 200 times more hydrocarbons than there is water on the whole of the Earth.

Time to wave peak oil goodbye forever … but before you do I should probably inform you of the tiny hiccup in any plan to develop this oil field.

It is around 1,300 light years away.

The scientists work at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and using the 30m-telescope of the Institute for Radio Astronomy they discovered a vast cloud of hydrocarbons within the Horse Head Nebula galaxy in the Orion constellation.

Upon discovery of the cloud IRAM astronomer Viviana Guzman declared that, "the nebula contains 200 times more hydrocarbons than the total amount of water on Earth!"

Just for those of you curious as to exactly how many barrels of oil that roughly equates to, here you go: one hundred and fifty-five quintillion, two hundred and thirty-eight quadrillion, ninety-five trillion, two hundred and thirty-eight billion, ninety-five million, two hundred and fifty thousand, or 155,238,095,238,095,250,000 barrels.

Now like me you might be wondering how oil, which is supposedly produced from organic matter buried millions of years ago, could possibly exist in space. Well it turns out that these hydrocarbons were likely created by the fragmentation of giant carbonaceous molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are produced during the death of a star.

There is even a theory that molecules such as these could have served as the first organic compounds for creating life.

Source: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Scientists-Find-Mega-Oil-Fiel-...-1300-Light-Years-Away.html



WHAT DO YOU THINK?


Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

andrew  |  January 02, 2013
Life was created by GOD. If life evolved, why arent we seeing changes happening now? And for the oil, how are we supposed to harvest it when its a millenium light years away? hmmmn.
Zack  |  December 31, 2012
Dibs on first wireline crew out!!!!
jesse atwell  |  December 30, 2012
The part that should be discussed is: There was no plant life on the planet, but it has fossil oil energy......does this mean that oil is naturally occurring compound? Pseudo intellectuals have been saying for decades that were running out of oil....yet more oil has been discovered off the coast of Brazil, Africa and Alaska and North Dakota which are greater than all the oil used to date ....and active oil fields in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran have not been depleted....in fact all known oil reserves in those countries has actually increased.....Ladies and Gentlemen there werent enough dinosaurs on earth to account for the amount of oil being pumped and to be pumped in the future......Oil is a naturally occuring chemical compound in the Universe. So weve been fed anothe bogus scientific theory that isnt panning out. Somebody should call Al Gore and tell him...
Kalada  |  December 28, 2012
This is a Fairy Tale told to Toddlers!
david  |  December 21, 2012
Roll on Warp drive
Clovis Hebert  |  December 21, 2012
Life was created by God!
Herbert Cappon  |  December 21, 2012
When are we crewing up????
andrew  |  December 21, 2012
if its true how the hell are we going to harvest that oil. So whats the news there.
Jeff Shouse  |  December 21, 2012
Now thats Greezy.Ill go check it out if your looking for someone, We better hurry tomorrows the 21st.
Sam  |  December 21, 2012
This news reminds me of Cold Fusion again ! Anyway, news are supposed to be sensational !.
Dallas  |  December 21, 2012
Must have been pre-Cretatious period Dinosaurs that died off and were fossilized from Uranus. This is great (And funny) news for all the yahoos who keep saying: "Fossil fuels are running out. We MUST develop wind, solar & pixie dust sources of energy to ween off of the pollution causing Oil". Will someone please make sure the White House press secretary gets a copy of this article to take to his boss. Maybe now, finally we can set a goal of worth for NASA. Go out and find Oil within the Solar System. We know water ice exists in places NEVER before in any wildest dreams thought of; why not Hydrocarbons?
darrick baxter  |  December 21, 2012
Wow, Youd spend that much gas just getting there... My van would never make a trip that far. I think Ill stick to the ShowN Save down the street.
Kev  |  December 21, 2012
Otta this world, just like my OIM ;-)
Ron  |  December 20, 2012
And I thought Fort McMurray was cold.
Noboy  |  December 20, 2012
Not to dis-credit anyone here.. but that is truck load of miles away. i would bet my salary and more that the likelihood of this being oil is less than 1%. sorry, but come on 7,800,000,000,000,000 miles away........
Robert  |  December 20, 2012
Saturns moon Titan is closer and has liquid methane (LNG) as surface lakes is a lot closer even if there is not as much.
Dave Newton  |  December 19, 2012
I would like to be on this pipeline project. Let me see...multiply by 5, carry the 7...yea, 1300 light years. I think I could retire after that job. Lol.
Marcus  |  December 19, 2012
Drill it! Sorry had to say it

Most Popular Articles