Interstellar Sugar Detected: Erythrulose Found in Galactic Center Cloud
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.