Spanish telescopes detect 1st interstellar sugar erythrulose at galactic center
Technology
Scientists previously spotted a simple sugar molecule, erythrulose, in a dust cloud near the heart of our galaxy, marking the first time any sugar has been found in interstellar space.
Spanish radio telescopes picked up its unique chemical signature, making this a pretty sweet breakthrough for space chemistry.
Sugars could have seeded early Earth
Sugars like erythrulose are key for life and can actually form in the freezing cold of space (think minus 250 degrees Celsius).
Researchers say these sugars likely hitched rides to early Earth on asteroids and comets, possibly helping kickstart the "prebiotic soup" that led to life.
As Izaskun Jimenez-Serra put it, finding sugar out there opens the possibility for life to develop on other worlds in a similar way to how it did on Earth.