Scientists discover the same sugar found in raspberries deep in space for the first time
Experts from Nature Astronomy confirm the discovery of erythulose, which is a natural keto-sugar that is commonly found in raspberries and other red berries.
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A recent study has brought attention to an uncommon discovery in interstellar space: sugar.
Experts from Nature Astronomy confirm the discovery of erythulose, which is a natural keto-sugar that is commonly found in raspberries and other red berries, a seemingly odd discovery to find deep in space.
Sugars are essential to biology on Earth, and for the first time, scientists have discovered five-carbon sugar ribose and six-carbon glucose in space, according to NASA.
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The detection of ribose, glucose and other monosaccharides in asteroids and meteorites suggests an origin of interstellar life within the interstellar medium, a vacuum of space.
Raspberries close up macro of fruit berries Photo taken with strobe indoors (knape / Getty Images)
An interstellar medium (ISM) is a vast region of space at the edge of the solar system filled with dust and gas.
Erythulose has exactly 14 atoms in its structure, making it the largest non-cyclic molecular species identified so far in the ISM.
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Artistic visualization of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collecting a sample. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)
"Its detection not only provides direct evidence that complex, chiral species can form under interstellar conditions, but it also takes us to a higher level in the ladder of interstellar chemical complexity, suggesting that other prebiotic (and potentially chiral) molecules could also form and survive under the extreme conditions of the ISM," experts at Nature Astronomy said.
The presence of such erythrulose within an interstellar molecular cloud demonstrates that it can be abiotically synthesized under interstellar conditions.
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"Therefore, the detection of interstellar erythrulose suggests that complex sugars may have formed in the protosolar molecular cloud and were subsequently transferred to minor bodies," experts said.
This picture shows a regions captured by a telescope aboard the Swift satellite of a region 200,00 light years wide. (NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP))
In the past, sugars have been found in meteorites and in an asteroid called Bennu.
This is astonishing, as for life on Earth, the sugars deoxyribose and ribose are the key building blocks of DNA and RNA.
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The discovery of interstellar sugars (Erythulose) leads experts to theorize that the ISM could be a viable source of sugar feedstock for the synthesis of nucleic acids, not only on Earth but also in other parts of the universe.