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[INTERNATIONAL] · Spain · 54 sources

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Spanish Astrobiology Team Detects First Interstellar Sugar

An international research team led by Izaskun Jiménez‑Serra of Spain’s Center for Astrobiology (CAB) has identified the sugar erythrulose in the interstellar medium for the first time. The molecule was detected in the G+0.693‑0.027 molecular cloud near the Milky Way’s centre, using ultra‑sensitive observations from the 40‑m Yebes radio telescope in Guadalajara and the 30‑m IRAM telescope on Pico Veleta. Twelve spectral lines matched the laboratory fingerprint of erythrulose, a four‑carbon sugar also found in raspberries and self‑tanners, and the cloud’s abundance is at least eight times that of comparable three‑carbon sugars.

The discovery, published in Nature Astronomy, suggests that complex organic molecules can form on icy dust grains in cold interstellar space and may have been delivered to the early Earth in the Late Heavy Bombardment, with estimates of 0.5‑50 million tonnes of erythrulose potentially reaching the planet. The finding provides a new piece of the puzzle on how essential biomolecules for the origin of life could arise before planets form.

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