Erythrulose Detected Near Galactic Center, Suggesting Life’s Building Blocks Are Widespread in Space

Astronomers have detected erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar also found in raspberries, within an interstellar gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way. The discovery marks the first identification of this molecule outside the solar system and reinforces the view that the chemical precursors of life are common throughout the galaxy.

The signal was identified in the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027 using the Yebes 40-meter and IRAM 30-meter radio telescopes in Spain. Researchers confirmed the detection by matching the observed spectral lines against highly precise laboratory measurements. The findings were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

“Sugars are important molecules in living systems, helping to provide energy, build important biological structures, and form parts of genetic material,” the research team noted. While water and carbon often dominate the search for life’s ingredients, sugars play equally critical roles in biochemistry.

Sugar Chemistry in the Interstellar Medium

Sugars such as ribose and glucose have previously been found in meteorites and asteroid samples, including material returned from the asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. However, laboratory simulations of early Earth conditions have struggled to produce erythrulose in sufficient quantities, leaving its prebiotic origins uncertain.

The interstellar detection resolves this puzzle. It suggests that erythrulose forms on icy dust grains in cold molecular clouds and can be incorporated into planetary systems during their formation. Consequently, ribose, glucose, and erythrulose may have been part of Earth’s chemical inventory before the planet fully assembled.

“The findings suggest that erythrulose can be made from simpler molecules on dust grains in space, and may then become part of more complex chemical systems,” the team stated. The molecule is particularly significant because it influences the configuration of threose, a sugar believed to be a direct precursor to the first nucleic acids that evolved into RNA and DNA.

Study co-author Izaskun Jiménez-Serra of the Spanish National Research Council emphasized that the target cloud possesses one of the richest chemical inventories in the galaxy, which enhanced the probability of detection. She added that future work will focus on hunting for even more complex sugars and direct RNA precursors to understand how far prebiotic chemistry progresses before planets form, and what chemical legacy young planetary systems inherit from the interstellar medium.

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