First Four-Carbon Sugar Erythrulose Detected in Interstellar Space
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.
223 Articles
223 Articles
Scientists have discovered for the first time the natural sugar found in raspberries and used in self-tanners in a huge cloud of gas and dust not far from the center of the Milky Way.
Raspberry sugar spotted in interstellar space, a sweet discovery that could reveal clues about life's origins
Is space … sweet? As it turns out, interstellar space has sugar — and it's the same type of sugar that's found in raspberries (and self-tanners, surprisingly). A sugar compound called erythrulose has been found near the center of our galaxy, swirling amongst the gas and dust like grains of sugar in a cotton candy machine. More specifically, this sugar was detected in a molecular cloud in the interstellar medium, or the space between star systems…
An international team of astronomers detected erythrollose, a sugar of four carbon atoms, in a gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way. It is the first time that this type of "true sugar" is identified outside the solar system, according to the study published in Nature Astronomy.Eritrulose is also found naturally in raspberries and is used in self-tanning products. Scientists had already found other sugars, such as ribose and glucose, in met…
Scientists Have Made a Sweet Discovery in Interstellar Space, Offering Clues to Mystery of Life's Origins
Scientists have discovered an abundance of molecules in the cosmos, but for the first time ever, they were able to detect one in interstellar space very familiar to us here on Earth: sugar. The discovery, made in the vast clouds of gas and dust between stars, could help scientists better understand how some of the chemical ingredients necessary for life formed long before Earth existed. Researchers at the Centro de Astrobiología, part of the Sp…
In a First, Astronomers Find Sugar in the Space Between Stars, Providing New Clues About the Origins of Life on Earth
Sugars are crucial components of RNA and DNA, the basis of all known organisms alive today. In a new study, the sugar erythrulose was detected in a gas- and dust-filled cloud near the center of our Milky Way galaxy
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