Sugar key for life on Earth found deep in our galaxy

Key Points:

• Astronomers have detected the natural sugar erythrulose, found in raspberries, in interstellar clouds near the Milky Way’s center, marking the first discovery of such sugars in space and suggesting complex life-related molecules can form between stars.
• The discovery was made by a team at Spain’s Center for Astrobiology using radio telescopes in Spain, identifying the sugar through its unique molecular signature in the molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027.
• This finding challenges previous beliefs that interstellar molecules grow by sequential carbon addition, indicating that relatively complex sugars can form on icy dust grains in space before star and planet formation.
• The presence of sugars in space supports the idea that organic compounds essential for life may have been delivered to early Earth via asteroids and comets during periods like the Late Heavy Bombardment.
• Researchers hope this discovery will lead to finding other crucial sugars such as ribose, a component of RNA, further illuminating the origins of life in the universe.