Sugar in space? Astronomers make a groundbreaking interstellar discovery

Astronomers at Spain's Center for Astrobiology detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar found in raspberries, in interstellar dust and gas near the Milky Way's center using radio telescopes in Spain. The discovery, published Monday in Nature Astronomy, marks the first time sugars—compounds essential to life—have been identified in space and suggests complex organic molecules can form before stars and planets develop. The finding strengthens theories that Earth's solar system may have been seeded with pre-existing organic compounds from interstellar space.