Scientists Detect First True Sugar in Milky Way Clouds, Adding to 30 Prebiotic Candidates
Updated
Updated · Livescience.com · Aug 16
Scientists Detect First True Sugar in Milky Way Clouds, Adding to 30 Prebiotic Candidates
3 articles · Updated · Livescience.com · Aug 16
Summary
Erythrulose—a four-carbon sugar—has been detected in molecular clouds near the Milky Way’s center, alongside more than a dozen other prebiotic molecules, marking the first true sugar identified in space.
Radio astronomers made the find by matching molecular spectral lines, though larger molecules remain hard to confirm because their absorption signatures increasingly overlap.
About 350 molecules have been identified in space so far, including roughly 180 complex organic molecules and around 30 prebiotic candidates by one researcher’s estimate.
Sample-return studies have already strengthened the case for widespread life ingredients: asteroid Bennu contained all 5 DNA and RNA nucleobases and 14 of the 20 amino acids used by life on Earth.
Researchers say the discovery does not indicate life itself, but it boosts the search for larger sugars such as ribose and for more complex molecules through nearly 10 current or planned sample-return missions.
Could the complex sugars recently discovered floating in harsh interstellar clouds prove that life is an inevitable cosmic consequence rather than a miracle?
Are the building blocks of life found on asteroid Bennu just random chemical noise, or the dormant seeds of unevolved alien biology?