First sugar detected in interstellar space

An international team led by Izaskun Jimenez-Serra of the Spain — Center for Astrobiology in Spain has detected the sugar erythrulose in the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027 near the center of the Milky Way, marking the first direct detection of a sugar in interstellar space. The discovery was made using the Yebes 40-meter and IRAM 30-meter radio telescopes in Spain, and the results were published in Nature Astronomy. Erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar found on Earth in raspberries and self-tanning products, is at least eight times more abundant than simpler three-carbon sugars in the same region, challenging the prevailing view that interstellar molecules grow by sequential addition of carbon atoms. The team, in collaboration with chemists from the University of Extremadura and Radboud University Nijmegen, showed that erythrulose can form within interstellar ices from simpler two-carbon molecules. The researchers estimate that between 0.5 and 50 million tonnes of this sugar could have reached Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, providing an alternative source of sugars that may have contributed to the origin of life.