Astronomers discover sugar in space, offering hints to life’s origins
Researchers matched radio signals to laboratory spectra and found erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, at levels at least eight times higher than similar three-carbon sugars.
- Astronomers have discovered a natural sugar floating in interstellar space, identifying the compound within a massive gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way.
- The sugar molecule, called erythrulose, is a simple sugar naturally found in red fruits like raspberries and commonly used as an active ingredient in self-tanning lotions.
- The sweet discovery was made using two high-powered radio telescopes in Spain, the Yebes 40-meter and the IRAM 30-meter, which captured unique radio signals from the molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027 and matched them with lab samples.
- While erythrulose itself is not a direct building block of life, it can easily convert into other crucial sugars—like those that make up DNA—deepening our understanding of prebiotic chemistry in space.
- The findings, published in Nature Astronomy, support the theory that the fundamental ingredients for life were already present in interstellar dust clouds before our solar system ever formed, rather than being delivered solely by comets.
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197 Articles
Astronomers have made a 'sweet' discovery in the Milky Way.
Astronomers have detected sugar in the Milky Way for the first time, in the space between stars. It is erythrulose, a molecule that we know...
Our understanding of the Milky Way has just become a little sweeter. For the first time, scientists have identified sugar in interstellar space, offering an important clue about the origin of sugar on Earth and, possibly, about the emergence of life, according to a new study published on Monday in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy. Discuss: SpaceX faces competition with China and Japan by developing technologies for reusable rockets Advanc…
For the first time, researchers have discovered real sugar called erythrulose in interstellar space. Just under 27,000 light-years from Earth could help to better understand the origin of life.
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