42
P.S. It was stated that the cloud was laced with cyanide, to the disappointment of aspiring interstellar dipsomanics.
Amaretto drinkers demur.
I can’t find the particular characterization I recall in connection with a molecular cloud. The original discovery of ethanol in space was in 1975, and my feeling is that my recollection dates from them.
In all these years it never occurred to me that these specifications determine the diameter until I mentioned it here. I realized that the ratio of the volume of the cloud to the sample volume with the “scoop” simply stands in the same ratio as the volume of the earth to the volume of a thimble, and this gives a formula which can be trivially solved for the diameter. With a 2cc thimble and a 1 acre football field, I get about 1/5 of a lightyear.