Sugar found in raspberries detected in interstellar space

Scientists have discovered a type of sugar in space that is also found in raspberries and some tanning lotions. Credit: Nasa/JPL-Caltech/S Stolovy (SSC/Caltech) et al (galaxy) & R Tsubin via (raspberries) Scientists have discovered a type of sugar in space that is also found in raspberries and some tanning lotions. Thus, sugar was detected for the first time in interstellar space (interstellar matter consisting of approximately 99% gas and 1% dust).

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains more than 100 billion stars, often separated by trillions of kilometers of space. In some cold regions called molecular clouds, gas comes together in high density and forms the birthplace of new stars. The sugar erythrulose was discovered near the center of our galaxy, in a giant molecular cloud called G+0.693−0.027. Sugars are essential ingredients for life on Earth and are therefore of interest to scientists.

The researchers behind the discovery suspect that erythrulose may have contributed to the first biochemical reactions that led to the emergence of life on Earth billions of years ago. Erythrulose was detected by an international research team using two ultrasensitive radio telescopes (Yebes 40m and IRAM 30m) located in Spain. Credit: Marcos del Mazo via The team identified 12 sets of spectral lines (like fingerprints that can identify atoms or molecules) that matched the spectral lines of erythrulose.

The research shows that there are abundant erythrulose molecules in that region of the molecular cloud. Sugars form part of the structural backbone of our genetic codes. The letters "D" in DNA and "R" in RNA, two types of nucleic acids that carry genetic information in living cells, are sugars.

Sugars are crucial for scientists to study prebiotic chemistry. This field studies the chemical reactions that took place on the early Earth billions of years ago and enabled life to begin. This is where erythrulose comes into A ketose type of sugar containing four carbon atoms.

Astrochemist Dr., who works at the Astrobiology Center in Spain and led the research. “What we propose is that this may have contributed to these initial biochemical reactions, explains Izaskun Jiménez-Serra. Charles Darwin suggested that the origin of life on Earth may have begun in a "warm little pond", where the chemical reactions that took place eventually led to more complex compounds and the emergence of life.

“If erythrulose reached such a warm pond, it would very easily turn into threose, explains Jiménez-Serra. Throse is another four-carbon sugar and is located in the backbone of a simple type of nucleic acid called TNA, which some scientists suspect may be the precursor to RNA. Credit: Ashley Barnes/European Southern Observatory (galaxy) & Juan García de la Concepción, University of Extremadura (molecule) “In astrochemistry, we traditionally thought of these molecules as being formed sequentially by the addition of carbon atoms, says Jiménez-Serra.

Therefore, the researchers expected to find three-carbon molecules in the same region of the molecular cloud, but they found none. Instead, they think that erythrulose actually consists of two-carbon molecules called aldehydes and alcohols in grains of interstellar dust. Jiménez-Serra likens it to building Legos.

He explains that there are various ways to make Lego's four-piece blocks. “Traditionally, we thought the easiest way to build these molecules was to use one block and then another block of three pieces, he says. But unexpectedly, the researchers discovered that this molecule was very likely built with two blocks of two pieces each. The team believes that erythrulose may have formed in interstellar space and reached Earth via comets and asteroids during the Late Heavy Bombardment, a period of intense asteroid and comet collisions thought to have occurred about 4 billion years ago.