First Sugar Ever Found in Interstellar Space Could Help Explain Life’s Origins
The sugar was detected with radio telescopes and measured at least 8 times stronger than evidence for simpler three-carbon sugars, researchers said.
- In work published Monday in Nature Astronomy, a team from Spain's Center for Astrobiology reported finding the four-carbon sugar erythrulose in G+0.693−0.027, a molecular cloud near the Milky Way's center.
- Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, an astronomer at the Center for Astrobiology, said the finding was unexpected because "the prevailing view in astrochemistry is that interstellar molecules grow in size through the sequential addition of carbon atoms."
- Using the Yebes 40 meter telescope and IRAM 30 meter telescope, scientists identified an erythrulose signature at least 8 times stronger than evidence for any three-carbon sugar molecules.
- Mark Sephton, a professor in Imperial College London, said the discovery "strengthens suggestions that our solar system may have been seeded with pre-existing organic compounds," which serve as building blocks for DNA and RNA.
- Carlos Briones, a study coauthor at the Spanish National Research Council, noted the detection "opens up the possibility of discovering in space other sugars such as ribose, which is part of RNA," pointing toward future research directions.
20 Articles
20 Articles
First Sugar Ever Found in Interstellar Space Could Help Explain Life’s Origins
Researchers have detected a sugar in the interstellar medium for the first time. Sugars are central to life. They help form the structural backbone of DNA and RNA and participate in essential metabolic reactions. They are also thought to have been necessary for the formation of the earliest nucleic acids. Yet researchers studying life’s origins [...]
Spanish scientists have found a naturally occurring sugar compound, the basis of life, in space dust near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This historic discovery strengthens the theory that the building blocks of life on Earth may have been synthesized in deep space before our planet was born.
For the first time, researchers have discovered real sugar in space, which could provide new evidence of the origin of life.
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