\n Astronomers have detected a natural sugar found in raspberries in clouds of interstellar dust and gas near the center of the Milky Way galaxy.\n <\/p>\n
\n The sweet discovery shows for the first time that compounds that are key to life can form in the vast expanse between stars and fuels optimism that other molecules important for the origins of life might be found in space.\n <\/p>\n
\n A team led by astronomers at Spain\u2019s Center for Astrobiology detected the sugar, called erythrulose, which is made of four carbon atoms. Sugars play a pivotal role in living systems, helping to provide energy, build biological structures and form parts of genetic material such as RNA and DNA.\n <\/p>\n
\n To make the observations, the team used two radio telescopes, one at the Yebes Observatory north of Madrid and the other at the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter Range, known as IRAM, in the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain, to study a molecular cloud known as G+0.693\u22120.027 near the center of the galaxy.\n <\/p>\n
\n Researchers identified the sugar by comparing its molecular signature in the radio wave data from the molecular cloud with the wavelength pattern for erythrulose measured in the laboratory. The team initially searched for simpler sugars with three carbon atoms but didn\u2019t find any.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis finding was unexpected, as the prevailing view in astrochemistry is that interstellar molecules grow in size through the sequential addition of carbon atoms,\u201d Izaskun Jim\u00e9nez-Serra, an astronomer at the Center for Astrobiology in Madrid and the Spanish National Research Council, said in a statement. Jim\u00e9nez-Serra was the lead author of the research, which published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOur discovery demonstrates that relatively complex sugars can already be synthesized in interstellar space, before stars and planets are born,\u201d she added via email.\n <\/p>\n \n The study suggested that erythrulose can be made from simpler molecules on icy dust grains in space and may then become part of more complex chemical systems. Scientists have detected more than 340 molecules in the matter and gases that exist in the Milky Way\u2019s interstellar space the but no sugars, the study noted.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSugar and sugar-related compounds have been found in asteroids, but the discovery of these compounds in interstellar space strengthens suggestions that our solar system may have been seeded with pre-existing organic compounds,\u201d said Mark Sephton, a professor in the department of Earth science and engineering at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the study, in an email.\n <\/p>\n \n Scientists have long wondered how sugar molecules first formed on Earth; lab experiments have shown they do not form easily<\/a> under the extreme conditions thought to exist in the earliest chapter of Earth\u2019s history.\n <\/p>\n \n Previous detection of sugars such as ribose and glucose in primitive meteorites and in samples from the asteroid Bennu collected in 2020<\/a> suggested to scientists that some sugars may have originated in space.\n <\/p>\n \n Sephton said it\u2019s possible that sugars would have been incorporated into asteroids as they formed and eventually delivered to Earth\u2019s surface via meteorites.\n <\/p>\n \n Yoshihiro Furukawa, a professor at Tohoku University\u2019s Department of Earth Sciences in Japan who was part of a team that found sugars in samples from Bennu<\/a>, agreed that sugars could reach Earth and other planets via comets and asteroid dust, although the process of how life emerged remain\ufeffs unclear.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis finding is very interesting, as we have been waiting for an actual detection like this,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n The researchers estimated that between 0.5 million and 50 million metric tons of this sugar could have peppered Earth\u2019s surface during what\u2019s known as the Late Heavy Bombardment<\/a>, a period about 4 billion years ago when asteroids pummeled the solar system\u2019s inner planets. However, whether such a bombardment occurred is still a matter of scientific debate, according to NASA.\n <\/p>\n \n Found in tiny amounts in raspberries and some other fruits, erythrulose is also produced as an ingredient for cosmetics<\/a> such as self-tanning and bronzing products because it reacts with the outer layer of the skin leading to a tanned appearance.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe detection of erythrulose is very exciting because it opens up the possibility of discovering in space other sugars such as ribose, which is part of RNA, and other important molecules for the origin of life,\u201d Carlos Briones, study coauthor and researcher in molecular evolution at the Spanish National Research Council and the Center for Astrobiology, said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n