Science & technology

Sugar Molecule Found in Space for the First Time

Is erythrulose the key to how life arose on Earth or the ultimate unlock for origin-of-life research?

Published JUL 15

Sugar Molecule Found in Space for the First Time

Story

Above: Messier 78 and Barnard's Loop, glowing nebulae and dark clouds in the Milky Way's Orion region. Image credit: Alan Dyer/VWPics/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The Facts

Astronomers have detected erythrulose, a four-carbon ketose sugar also found in raspberries and self-tanning lotions, in a large gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way, marking the first time a true sugar has been identified in interstellar space.
Nature
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
The sugar was identified in a molecular cloud called G+0.693-0.027 using two radio telescopes in Spain — the Yebes 40-meter telescope and the IRAM 30-meter telescope. Researchers matched 12 spectral lines from the cloud to the laboratory spectrum of erythrulose.
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Live Science
Erythrulose was found to be at least 8 to 17 times more abundant than three-carbon sugars glyceraldehyde and dihydroxyacetone, neither of which was detected in the cloud. This was unexpected, as interstellar molecules are generally thought to grow by sequential addition of carbon atoms.
ScienceAlert
CNN
Researchers propose that erythrulose forms on the icy surfaces of interstellar dust grains through the combination of two two-carbon molecules, glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol, activated by radiation. Shocks can then eject these molecules into the gas phase, where telescopes can detect them.
Nature
ABC Australia
Scientists estimate that between 0.5 and 50 million tonnes of erythrulose could have been delivered to Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, a period of intense asteroid and comet impacts roughly 4 billion years ago, potentially supplying raw materials for early biological processes.
CNN
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
At 14 atoms in size, erythrulose is the largest molecule detected in interstellar space without a closed ring structure and only the second chiral molecule found there. Study lead author Izaskun Jiménez-Serra said the discovery opens "the possibility for life to develop elsewhere in the universe."
The Associated Press
CBS News

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

Finding erythrulose in interstellar space is a massive deal for understanding how life began on Earth. During the Late Heavy Bombardment around 4 billion years ago, up to 50 million tons of this sugar could've rained down on Earth, delivering ready-made building blocks before life even had a chance to form. Space, not Earth, may have been the original sugar factory.

BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Narrative B

Erythrulose is a key to unlocking origin-of-life research because it converts into threose, a precursor to the first nucleic acids that became RNA and DNA. Finding a true four-carbon sugar in interstellar space proves life's ingredients form freely across the galaxy, not just on Earth. The next big prize is spotting an actual RNA building block in deep space.

Live Science