First Sugar Detected in Interstellar Space Signals Prestellar Chemistry
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.