Scientists Discover First True Sugar in Milky Way’s Galactic Center

BAKU Jul 14 (AZERTAC/APP): Baku, July 14, AZERTAC

The latest discovery in the galactic center strengthens the Milky Way’s resemblance to a mouth-watering treat, according to Science Alert. Previously, scientists found an ester called ethyl formate drifting between the stars in the inner regions of the galaxy – a compound that contributes to the distinctive flavor of raspberries. Now astronomers may have found the sugar with which to dust this cosmic comestible. In roughly the same region of space, scientists have now identified erythrulose – the first true sugar ever found in interstellar space. You probably wouldn’t want to actually eat it. Erythrulose is edible enough, but it’s mixed in with a whole bunch of space stuff that is rather less compatible with staying alive (hello, cyanide-bearing molecules). Fortunately, what wouldn’t make a very good snack may have made an excellent ingredient for life’s origins. According to a team led by cosmochemist Izaskun Jiménez-Serra of the Spanish Astrobiology Center, the discovery could help explain where the first biologically important sugars came from before life began on Earth.”A central question in origin-of-life research is how monosaccharides formed on the primitive Earth, as laboratory experiments under prebiotic conditions yield insufficient concentrations,” the team writes in a new paper published in Nature Astronomy. “Interstellar erythrulose could have contributed to the sugar inventory available for early metabolic and replication processes.”Life as we know it depends on sugars – small, carbon-based molecules that cells use for energy and as raw materials to build larger biological molecules. Sugars also form the backbone of RNA and DNA. Sugars are also central to prebiotic chemistry – the chemical conditions that give rise to life. However, because scientists still don’t know how the first sugars formed, they are often treated simply as starting ingredients in models of prebiotic chemistry. We’ve had clues that sugar can form in a space environment. Sugars have been found in meteorites and samples from asteroid Bennu. Simple sugar precursors such as glycolaldehyde and (Z)-1,2-ethenediol have also been detected in space. If we want to find true sugar, containing three or more carbon atoms, though, the researchers reasoned that the galactic center was the place to look. The inner region of our galaxy is known as the Central Molecular Zone, and it’s filled with thick clouds of gas and dust that are rich with complex organic molecules.The team turned two radio telescopes in Spain towards a particularly promising cloud named G+0.693, which in the past has yielded other prebiotic molecules.

The search was conducted by looking for erythrulose’s unique radio signature. Every molecule rotates in its own way, producing a distinctive pattern of radio frequencies that astronomers can identify even from thousands of light-years away.