Erythulose Sugar Found in Milky Way’s Central Cloud

An international team of astronomers led by Izaskun Jiménez‑Serra of Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología has detected the sugar erythulose (a four‑carbon ketose also found in raspberries) in the molecular cloud G+0.693‑0.027 near the Milky Way’s Galactic Center, about 26,000 light‑years from Earth. The detection, made with the 40 m Yebes and 30 m IRAM radio telescopes in Spain, is the first confirmed finding of a true sugar in interstellar space and the most complex organic molecule identified beyond the Solar System. Published in Nature Astronomy, the study shows that complex prebiotic molecules can form in dense interstellar clouds before stars and planets exist, supporting scenarios in which such compounds were later delivered to early Earth by comets and asteroids. The discovery does not imply extraterrestrial life, but it expands the known distribution of life‑building chemistry in the galaxy.