Scientists Detect Sugar Near the Centre of the Milky Way Galaxy
- Astronomers identified erythrulose, a naturally occurring four-carbon sugar found in raspberries, floating in interstellar space near the galactic centre
- Scientists used radio telescopes in Spain to detect the sugar by matching its unique rotational signal to laboratory measurements
- The discovery raised tantalising questions about whether sugar delivered to Earth billions of years ago helped trigger the first building blocks of life
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A team of astronomers has detected sugar deep in interstellar space, and not just any sugar. Erythrulose, a naturally occurring four-carbon compound found in red fruits like raspberries and used in self-tanning cosmetics, was spotted floating in a vast molecular cloud near the centre of the Milky Way. The findings were published in Nature Astronomy.
Scientists at the Madrid Centre for Astrobiology made the discovery using radio telescopes in Spain. Lead researcher Izaskun Jiménez-Serra explained that the detection was possible because every molecule has its own unique fingerprint. At the extreme cold of deep space, these molecules can only rotate, and as they spin, they emit radio-frequency light.
Sugar formed under near-impossible conditions
What makes the find remarkable is where and how the sugar formed. Temperatures in these interstellar clouds hover close to absolute zero, and the pressure conditions resemble a vacuum. Yet under those circumstances, complex molecules still managed to assemble.
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The dust particles acted as a catalyst, providing just enough surface area for the reaction to occur. According to @dailymail page, the team had initially expected to find simpler three-carbon sugars. Instead, they found erythrulose and detected no trace of the simpler versions, which made the result even more significant.
Could space sugar have seeded life on earth?
Jiménez-Serra estimated the amount of sugar present in the cloud they studied to be equivalent to roughly one third of the Earth's annual global sugar production. That is an enormous quantity of a molecule that biology depends on. Sugars are not merely sweet. They form the structural backbone of RNA and DNA, the molecules that carry genetic information in every living thing. The researchers believe erythrulose may have been a precursor to ribose, the specific sugar found in RNA.
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People curious about the taste of the sugar
The internet had thoughts on the discovery, and they were exactly as sweet as you would expect:
Sensei_whopper said:
"Well yeah it's called the Milky Way for a reason"
PiercedVeilx:
"Sugar = glucose, glucose can be created from photosynthesis, meaning there's life out there. 😎"
Aki:
"Diabetes is intergalactic."
Guy shared:
"I guess you can say that's some galactose."
Alexander commented:
"I would hope there is sugar in a Milky Way."
Tacos wrote:
"There has to be aliens. There's no way the materials for life exist in space without alien lifeforms."
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Source: Briefly News
