Overview
- An international team reported a peer‑reviewed identification of the four‑carbon sugar erythrulose in the molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027 based on 12 matching spectral line groups and 17 transitions with six nearly unblended lines and a very low chance of random coincidence.
- Researchers measured the molecule's rotational spectrum in the lab and matched it to radio data from the Yebes 40‑metre and IRAM 30‑metre telescopes to isolate the weak signals in the cloud's crowded spectrum.
- Quantum‑chemical calculations and astrochemical models reproduce pathways that form erythrulose on the icy surfaces of interstellar dust grains from smaller precursors such as glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol.
- The team reports erythrulose is substantially more abundant in that cloud than comparable three‑carbon sugars, but abundance and delivery estimates rely on model assumptions and the detection does not indicate life.
- Follow‑up work will seek independent confirmations and searches for other sugars such as ribose, and the finding links to earlier meteorite and asteroid samples that show complex organic molecules may have been delivered to the early Earth.