A sugar molecule found in raspberries and fake tan has been detected in a gas cloud near the heart of the Milky Way, in a discovery scientists said could help explain how some of life\u2019s key ingredients formed before Earth existed.<\/p>\n
Astronomers* said they have detected the chemical fingerprint of erythrulose, a simple sugar, in a vast cloud of gas and dust near the centre of our galaxy.<\/p>\n
The discovery does not mean alien life has been found. Instead, scientists said it showed relatively complex organic molecules* could form in deep space before stars and planets were born.<\/p>\n
Authors of the Nature Astronomy study said erythrulose was the first confirmed \u201ctrue sugar\u201d found in the interstellar* medium, being the gas and dust between stars.<\/p>\n
Erythrulose is found naturally in raspberries and is also used in self-tanning lotions.<\/p>\n
Researchers detected the molecule in a large molecular cloud known as G+0.693-0.027, near the Milky Way\u2019s centre.<\/p>\n
The signal was picked up in observations from Spain\u2019s Yebes 40m and IRAM 30m radio telescopes, then checked against laboratory measurements.<\/p>\n
Scientists identified erythrulose by analysing its microwave* spectrum, effectively matching the molecule\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n
Sugars are important to life on Earth because they provide energy and play a role in the chemistry of genetic* material including DNA* and RNA*.<\/p>\n
Study lead author Dr Izaskun Jim\u00e9nez-Serra, from Spain\u2019s Centre for Astrobiology*, said the discovery suggested some of life\u2019s basic ingredients could form before planets existed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe detection of the first sugar in interstellar space suggests that the key ingredients for life can form in molecular nebula* before stars and planets form,\u201d she told the ABC.<\/p>\n
Erythrulose is a four-carbon sugar known as a ketose*.<\/p>\n
The researchers said it may form on icy dust grains in space when smaller molecules combine under the influence of ultraviolet* light or cosmic* rays.<\/p>\n
The discovery builds on earlier findings of sugar-like molecules near the galactic centre*, as well as sugars found in meteorites* and asteroid* samples.<\/p>\n
Researchers now hoped to search for more complex sugars in interstellar space to try to understand how far prebiotic* chemistry could develop before planets form.<\/p>\n
The finding adds weight to the idea that some of the raw ingredients for life may have been present in space long before they arrived on young planets such as Earth.<\/p>\n
POLL<\/p>\n
GLOSSARY<\/p>\n
astronomers: scientists who studies the stars, planets, and other natural objects in space molecules: the simplest unit of a chemical substance, usually a group of two or more atoms interstellar: located, occurring or travelling between the stars genetic: belonging or relating to genes (parts of the DNA in cells) received by each animal or plant from its parents DNA: the abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid, the chemical at the centre of the cells of living things that controls each cell\u2019s structure and function and carries information in the form of genes from generation to generation RNA: abbreviation for ribonucleic acid: an important chemical present in all living cells astrobiology: the study of life\u2019s beginnings on Earth and the possibility of life on other planets nebula: a cloud of gas or dust in space, appearing either bright or dark ketose: any monosaccharide (sugar) that contains a ketone group cosmic: relating to the universe and the natural processes that happen in it ultraviolet: UV light has a wavelength that is after the violet (= light purple) end of the range of colours that can be seen by humans galactic centre: the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, which hosts a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) meteorites: a piece of matter from space that has landed on earth asteroid: any one of many small planets that orbit the sun not considered a true planet prebiotic: of, relating to, or being chemical or environmental precursors of the origin of life <\/p>\n
EXTRA READING<\/p>\n
New view of Milky Way monster<\/a><\/p>\n