Sagittarius B2.

FORGET the Restaurant at the End of the Universe—the Bar at the Centre of the Galaxy is where it’s at. At a conservative estimate, the gas cloud Sagittarius B2 contains 10*27 (that’s a billion billion billion) litres of alcohol at 200 per cent proof.

Sagittarius B2 is a vast cloud 150 light years across lying within 400 light years of the giant black hole that lurks in the dark heart of the Milky Way. It is one of the biggest of the molecular clouds that account, collectively, for about 10 per cent of our Galaxy’s visible mass. And it’s a sobering (or not so sobering) thought that there is considerably more alcohol in a cloud like Sagittarius B2 than has been distilled in the entire history of the human race.

— Marcus Chown, “Star attraction,” New Scientist.

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Oil on Canvas. 30*20cm.

2017.