NEW YORK (AP) — The space between the stars may be a bit sweeter than scientists once thought.
Astronomers have identified a form of sugar in space that is also found in raspberries and in some self-tanning products. The molecule, known as erythrulose, was detected in the interstellar medium — the sparse clouds of gas and dust that drift between stars.
Sugars are more than ingredients that sweeten tea or coat doughnuts. Various types help power living cells and form part of DNA. Because sugars are considered important building blocks for life as we understand it, scientists are eager to learn how they can form in space.
The research team used two dish-shaped radio telescopes in Spain to study a massive gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way. By comparing signals gathered by the telescopes with laboratory samples, they were able to identify erythrulose in its gas form. It is the latest sugar molecule found in space, in a region that has been traversed by NASA’s twin Voyager probes, the most distant spacecraft ever sent from Earth.
The findings were published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Scientists have previously uncovered intriguing chemistry across the galaxy, including components linked to genetic material and parts of cells. About 25 years ago, researchers detected a molecular relative of table sugar near the Milky Way’s center. More recently, dark grains collected from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft revealed additional sugars, including one that is a key ingredient in DNA.
Erythrulose itself is not required for life, but it can readily change into a form believed to have been important in helping life begin on Earth. It is also among the most complex sugars identified in space so far, said Erika Hamden, an astrophysicist at the University of Arizona.
Hamden, who was not involved in the study, described the discovery as “a pristine example of the stuff that’s just floating out in the galaxy.”
These interstellar investigations are all about understanding how life got started. Did faraway comets or space rocks deliver the essential ingredients to us? Or were the essential components already here that eventually gave rise to our solar system?
The new sugar lends evidence to the latter theory. Researchers want to look for more sugars in space and learn about how they convert to different forms.
Finding them in one spot means they’re likely also hiding in distant corners of the galaxy along with other important bits, said study author Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrobiology in Spain.
“The key ingredients for the origin of life could be present in other regions across the galaxy, opening the possibility for life to develop elsewhere in the universe,” Jiménez-Serra said.
