Scientists have detected a "real sugar" molecule for the first time in an interstellar cloud near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, making a discovery that may shed light on the origin of life outside Earth and the formation of organic molecules.
According to the research published in the journal Nature Astronomy, an international research team led by astrochemist Izaskun Jimenez-Serra from the Spanish Astrobiology Center examined the radio frequencies emitted from gas and dust clouds in the center of the galaxy with the help of two radio telescopes.
By comparing the frequency patterns emitted by molecules during their movements in space with molecular data in the laboratory environment, researchers determined that the signals obtained exactly matched the sugar molecule called "erythrulose".
Erythrilose, composed of four carbon, eight hydrogen and four oxygen atoms, is a type of sugar found naturally on Earth in raspberries.
In previous research, some sugar types such as glucose and ribose were detected in meteorites and asteroids that fell to Earth, but it was not possible to determine exactly where and at what stage these molecules were formed in space.
Recent laboratory analyzes and telescope data have proven that sugar molecules can be synthesized independently of life, as a result of chemical reactions occurring in glaciers in the interstellar medium, before stars and planets are even formed.
Experts stated that this finding constitutes a critical first step for the formation of the building blocks of RNA and DNA, which are cellular information carriers.
According to the research team's calculations, it is estimated that 0.5 to 50 million tons of this sugar molecule may have been transported from space to the earth as a result of asteroid and comet impacts in the early stages of the Earth's formation.