Firstly For the first time in history, astronomers have detected a sugar molecule floating among clouds of gas in interstellar space.
Erythrulose has four carbon atoms and occurs naturally on Earth in some fruits. Its presence at a distance of 26,000 light-years from us may assist solve the mystery of the origin of life on our planet.
The study was published this week in Natural astronomy. A team led by Izaskun Jiménez Serra analyzed data collected by radio telescopes in Spain to identify the molecule’s signature based on the microwave frequencies it produces as it spins.
There are sugar molecules essential for life. They constitute fuel cells and are part of RNA and DNA. However, scientists still don’t know how they accumulated in vast enough quantities on early Earth. One possibility is that some of the particles did not originate on the planet but instead reached Earth via meteorites.
In the novel study, scientists focused on the G+0.693−0.027 molecular cloud, a location they did not choose randomly. G+0.693−0.027 is among the regions richest in molecules in the entire Milky Way. It is located near the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, and collisions with another cloud appear to transform the region into a veritable chemical factory. Scientists have already detected alcohols, aldehydes, urea, ethanolamine, hydroxylamine and dozens of complicated organic molecules. Now the sugar is in the mixture.
The idea that some sugars may have come from space gained popularity in December 2025 when: scientists confirmed that the asteroid Bennu contains ribose and other monosaccharides. Ribose is the basic sugar in RNA. Fresh research reveals another type of space sugar, belonging to the ketose family. On Earth, it is found in suntan lotions and raspberries.
The data came from two radio telescopes located in Spain. One is located at the Yebes Observatory, northeast of Madrid, and the other is at the Millimeter Range Radio Astronomy Institute, which is located near a ski resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
“The presence of many prebiotic organic molecules in meteorites and asteroids, including some monosaccharides, is well known, but their origin is unclear,” said Jesús R. Flores, a professor at the University of Vigo who was not involved in the study Center for Scientific Media in Spain. “One obvious possibility is that they initially form in the so-called interstellar medium. However, no true saccharide has been detected there so far. The first is erythrulose, a four-carbon ketomonosaccharide.”