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 Madrid and southern Spain. The discovery, published Monday in Nature Astronomy, marks the first time scientists have found a sugar compound in interstellar space, suggesting that molecules crucial to life can form between stars before planetary systems develop. The finding challenges existing models of how complex interstellar molecules form and supports the theory that Earth's early chemistry may have been seeded with preexisting organic compounds from space.