‘Raspberry sugar’ detected in Milky Way
A naturally occurring sugar found in raspberries and even used in fake tan lotions has been discovered floating in deep space for the first time.
Astronomers have detected the simple sugar erythrulose in a vast cloud of gas and dust near the center of the Milky Way; This marks the first time any sugar has been detected in the interstellar medium.
The discovery suggests that compounds essential for life may form naturally among stars before being carried to planets by comets and asteroids.
Scientists believe that sugar forms when organic molecules combine on microscopic dust grains at temperatures as low as minus 250C.
Principal investigator Dr. from the Astrobiology Center near Madrid, Spain. Izaskun Jiménez-Serra said: “This is the first sugar detected in interstellar space and it is important because it shows us that these sugars are more common than we previously thought.
“This opens the possibility for life to develop on other worlds similar to that on Earth.”
The team made the discovery using two Spanish radio telescopes while examining a cloud known as G+0.693-0.027.
Unable to detect the smaller three-carbon sugars, the researchers were surprised to find traces of erythrulose instead.
Writing in the journal Nature Astronomy, the researchers suggest that the sugar was formed when glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol reacted on interstellar dust particles, eventually forming into comets or meteors.
Scientists believe millions of tons of the compound may have reached Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, when countless asteroids and comets slammed into the young planet billions of years ago.
Sugar is thought to help create the chemical “prebiotic soup” from which the first building blocks of life emerged.
Professor Yoshihiro Furukawa, from Tohoku University in Japan, said: “We were expecting a real detection like this.
“Sugars formed in the interstellar medium can reach Earth and other planets via comet dust… If planetary environments could form life from such molecules, this source may have facilitated the emergence of life, but the process itself remains unclear.”
This discovery reinforces the idea that some fundamental components of life may be much more common in the cosmos than previously believed.
