Scientists discover natural sugar erythrulose near the center of the Milky Way

AKIPRESS.COM – An international team of scientists has discovered erythrulose—a natural sugar found in raspberries and used in self-tanning products—in a molecular cloud near the center of the Milky Way. The discovery was announced by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

The findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest that sugars may have arrived on Earth from space about 4 billion years ago, contributing to the synthesis of the first nucleic acids and subsequently giving rise to the earliest forms of life.

“The detection of erythrulose in a molecular cloud is an exciting discovery. It opens up the possibility of identifying more complex sugars in the interstellar medium, such as ribose, which is part of RNA, and other molecules relevant to the origin of life,” said Carlos Briones, co-author of the study and researcher at the Center for Astrobiology in Spain.

Erythrulose was detected in the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027, located near the center of our galaxy. The authors of the study reported finding 12 signals matching the spectrum of erythrulose. The study indicates that this four-carbon sugar is at least eight times more abundant in this region than other simpler three-carbon sugars.

Sugars such as ribose, which contains five carbon atoms, and glucose, which contains six, have previously been found in meteorites and in samples collected directly from asteroids.

“However, until now, no sugar had been detected directly in the interstellar medium,” the researchers concluded.

Theories explaining the origin of life on Earth suggest that sugars played a crucial role in the formation of the first nucleic acids billions of years ago.