Have you ever walked outside after a rainstorm and taken a deep breath? It seems like after every storm there's a smell that's almost a mixture of earth and worm. Researchers set out to find out why.

It's strange that rainstorms have such a distinctive smell because raindrops themselves don’t really smell like anything. MIT researchers wanted to know what causes the smell, so they filmed raindrops hitting the ground in slow motion.

The scientists discovered that the raindrops release particles of liquid trapped in gas called aerosols when they hit soil.

These particles contain bacteria and plant oils that smell good. And when the raindrops hit the soil, these particles explode, releasing the familiar smell that we all know and love, to drift through the air.

More From 98.1 The Hawk