Scientists Detect First True Sugar in Interstellar Cloud

Overview

• The study published in Nature Astronomy reports the detection of erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, in the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027 near the Milky Way’s center.
• Radio observations from the Yebes 40m and IRAM 30m telescopes were compared with laboratory spectra and yielded twelve coincident spectral lines that support the molecule’s identification.
• The same observations identified more than 180 other molecular species in the cloud, which the authors say reduces the chance of a misassignment.
• The research team presented an order-of-magnitude estimate that between 0.5 million and 50 million tonnes of erythrulose could have been delivered to early Earth by comets and asteroids during heavy bombardment.
• External experts called the result significant and the authors plan targeted searches for larger sugars such as ribose and deoxyribose while stressing this finding does not by itself explain how life began.