All articles tagged with #astrochemistry
Astronomers detected erythrulose, a four‑carbon sugar, in a Milky Way molecular cloud using radio telescopes at Yebes and Granada, suggesting sugars can form on interstellar dust grains and potentially contribute energy for early metabolic processes relevant to the origins of life.
A Sydney PhD candidate recreated interstellar dust in a lab by charging a nitrogen/CO2/acetylene gas mix with about 10,000 volts, producing carbon-rich dust whose infrared fingerprints match those seen in space. The work helps scientists study how CHON-based building blocks form under space-like conditions and aims to build a database of infrared signatures to compare with observations of star-forming regions and meteorites, offering new insights into the origins of life on Earth.
Astronomers detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, in a Milky Way molecular cloud—the first sugar found in interstellar space—hinting that sugars and RNA-building blocks may be widespread in the cosmos, with estimates that up to 50 million tons could have rained down on early Earth to support prebiotic chemistry.
Astronomers have detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, in a giant interstellar gas cloud near the Milky Way’s center, suggesting sugars are more common in space than previously thought and could seed prebiotic chemistry by enabling ribonucleotide formation, challenging the idea that sugars form only through gradual, carbon-by-carbon buildup.
Astronomers detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, in the interstellar molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027 near the Milky Way’s center, based on data from Spain’s Yebes and IRAM telescopes and published in Nature Astronomy. This marks the first interstellar monosaccharide discovery and supports the idea that space-based chemistry can form prebiotic molecules that may have contributed to Earth’s origins, though it does not imply life elsewhere.
Astronomers detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, in a Milky Way center molecular cloud (G+0.693−0.027) using the Yebes 40m and IRAM, finding it surprisingly abundant and likely formed in interstellar ices; they estimate 0.5–50 million tonnes could have been delivered to Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, suggesting space-made sugars may have helped seed Earth's early metabolism and possibly hinting at other sugars like ribose in space.
Astronomers detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, in a molecular cloud near the Milky Way’s center, showing that sugars can form in interstellar space and may seed planetary systems; observations from Yebes Observatory and IRAM identified the sugar’s spectral signature in G+0.693−0.027, with discussions that up to 0.5 million to 50 million metric tons could have been delivered to early Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, a debated period.
Astronomers directly detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar, in the Milky Way’s molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027 using Spain’s Yebes 40-meter and IRAM 30-meter telescopes. The sugar’s spectral fingerprint matched 12 lines, and erythrulose was found to be eight times more abundant than simpler sugars, revealing chemical complexity in space before stars or planets form and suggesting life-building blocks may pre-exist in star-forming clouds; researchers plan to search for larger sugars like ribose next.
Ultrasensitive broadband spectral surveys with the Yebes 40 m and IRAM 30 m telescopes led to the first detection of erythrulose, a four‑carbon ketose, in the interstellar medium toward the Galactic Centre cloud G+0.693−0.027. Erythrulose is at least 8–17 times more abundant than the undetected C3 sugars in this cloud, and its formation is explained by grain-surface chemistry combining glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol via fast hydrogen-abstracting reactions on icy dust grains, followed by an intersystem crossing to yield the chiral sugar. Astrophysical modeling (LTE fits and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations) reproduces its presence under typical Galactic Centre conditions, suggesting interstellar sugars could contribute to prebiotic inventories and potentially to the origin of biological homochirality on early Earth, linking ISM chemistry to meteoritic organics and solar-system material.
NASA's JWST detected the same unidentified absorption feature in Titan and Pluto spectra, suggesting a surface- or near-surface compound common to both nitrogen- and methane-rich worlds. The signal, stronger on Pluto and not explained by known absorbers, appears to originate from the surfaces rather than the atmosphere and was observed by two different JWST instruments, making an instrumental glitch unlikely. Researchers consider possibilities from an unknown compound to a known molecule in an unusual form, with future observations and Dragonfly mission data hoped to help identify it; findings are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and archived on arXiv.
The James Webb Space Telescope detected a 5.113‑micrometer absorption feature on both Pluto and Titan that cannot be matched to any known compound in spectral databases, suggesting a mysterious mixture or a chemistry not yet characterized. Researchers confirm it isn’t an instrument error and are pursuing laboratory replication and further JWST observations, with the Dragonfly mission potentially helping identify candidate compounds to solve this outer-solar-system puzzle.
A James Webb Space Telescope analysis of Pluto and Saturn’s moon Titan reveals a shared absorption feature near 5.11 micrometers, suggesting an unknown molecule may exist on both worlds. The suspected candidates include benzene or other hydrocarbons, but the exact identifications are unconfirmed and the study has not yet been peer‑reviewed. Researchers say this puzzling signal could be clarified by future observations, including NASA’s Dragonfly mission to Titan, which could help determine whether the molecule is viable on Pluto as well.
A 2009 detection of ethyl formate in Sagittarius B2 helped fuel the popular claim that space tastes like raspberries; however, ethyl formate is only one of many molecules in a vast, tenuous cloud, and the larger, more significant finding was the identification of n-propyl cyanide, showing complex organics can form in interstellar space. The raspberry framing is an oversimplification: the cloud’s chemistry does not equate to a space flavor, and space does not smell like raspberries—astronauts describe spaceflight smells as metallic. The broader takeaway is that complex organic chemistry, potentially related to prebiotic processes, can begin in interstellar environments long before planets form, though unambiguous amino acids have yet to be detected in space.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (MIRI) detected methane gas and an unusually high CO2-to-water ratio in interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during December 2025 observations, marking the first direct methane detection in an interstellar object. The data imply formation in conditions distinct from the Solar System and suggest the comet, possibly up to 10 billion years old, formed far from our Sun; as it warmed near the Sun, buried methane thawed and CO2 was released, with gas production fading as it receded into interstellar space. These findings help illuminate chemical environments in distant planetary systems.
NASA’s Dragonfly is an eight-rotor rotorcraft mission planned to launch by 2028 to Titan. It will fly across Titan’s thick atmosphere and dunes, powered by its helicopters and carrying a DraMS mass spectrometer, a sample carousel, ovens, and a laser to study organic material and prebiotic chemistry. The mission, about a seven-year journey to reach Titan, emphasizes mobility over wheels (unlike planetary rovers) and will not sample Titan’s liquid lakes, instead targeting land-based organics to understand how complex molecules could form.