[paul.fr]

if we were able to stick our nose out, would space have a distinctive smell?

[lyner]

My God Paul, you do pick 'em!
There might be the occasional molecule of 'smell' out there. Some of the propellants used in rockets may be a bit smelly. It would be very diluted, though.

[Bored chemist]

There are organic (and other) compounds in space that would smell if you gathered enough of them together. What I'm not sure of is how dilute thery are, it may be that there's so much H and He there that you would suffocate from the lack of O2 before your nose got enough other stuff to notice it.

[another_someone]

Actually, I suspect it is a bit more complex that that.

The point really is not whether there are molecules that on Earth would trigger the olfactory glands, but rather whether the ions (not the molecules) in space would trigger an olfactory response.  I could well imagine that the ions would be more reactive, and assuming the don't damage the olfactory nerves (as prolonged exposure to H₂S does), then I could imagine the would trigger a response in the nerves.

I suppose the question is whether ionised gasses smell the same as their electrically neutral counterparts, and I suspect they do not.

[RD]

According to Stephen Fry on the quiz show QI...

The Moon smells of gunpowder

and

the ozone layer smells of geraniums

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QI

[lyner]

The density would definitely be very low, of anything up there. The pressure is ridiculously low- something like 1/1,000000 atmospheric pressure at 250km - and so would the density.
To take a sample of the smell, you could run a compressor for a long time and smell what it collected when you got to 1 Atmosphere of pressure.

[Bored chemist]

And, by the time you had compressed it all the ions would have found some electrons and been neutralised. I still think that perhaps, since it's mainly hydrogen it would smell like hydrogen i.e. not at all.

[Alandriel]

if we were able to stick our nose out, would space have a distinctive smell?

Captain Janeway would say: I smell coffee in that nebula!

 []

What a fab question Paul, how do you do it?!?!?!?!  [] []