Scientists Find Sugar Deep In Our Galaxy

Scientists Find Sugar Deep In Our Galaxy (apnews.com) 8 Astronomers have detected erythrulose, a sugar found in raspberries and self-tanners, in a gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way. While not essential for life itself, the molecule can convert into a form thought to be important for life's origins, adding evidence that key prebiotic ingredients may be widespread across the galaxy. The Associated Press reports: Using two dish-shaped radio telescopes in Spain, researchers collected data from a large gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way. They identified the sugar in gas form by comparing telescope signals to samples in the lab. It's the latest kind of sugar detected in space -- in a region crossed by NASA's twin Voyager, the farthest spacecraft to ever travel from Earth. Scientists have found interesting chemistry in our galaxy, including building blocks for genetic material and parts of the cell. They spotted a cousin to table sugar near the center of the Milky Way about 25 years ago, and black grains from asteroid Bennu retrieved by NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft yielded other sugars, including a key DNA ingredient. The latest sugar isn't essential for life, but can easily convert to a form that's thought to be crucial to kick-starting life on Earth. And it's one of the most complex sugars spotted so far, said astrophysicist Erika Hamden with the University of Arizona. The results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Scientists have found interesting chemistry in our galaxy, including building blocks for genetic material and parts of the cell. They spotted a cousin to table sugar near the center of the Milky Way about 25 years ago, and black grains from asteroid Bennu retrieved by NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft yielded other sugars, including a key DNA ingredient. The latest sugar isn't essential for life, but can easily convert to a form that's thought to be crucial to kick-starting life on Earth. And it's one of the most complex sugars spotted so far, said astrophysicist Erika Hamden with the University of Arizona. The results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Re: Scientists Find Sugar Deep In Our Galaxy (Score:1) Scientists Find Sugar Deep In Our Galaxy: Wow! I didn't expect what's left of creimer to make it that far away! CROFLOL! The heck did they need a radiotelecope for? (Score:2) The ingredients are listed on the wrapper! Re: (Score:2) Is that how the holographic principle works?? Sugar! (Score:2) Where are the space ants? /s Known this for our Solar system since the 1980ies (Score:2) Re: (Score:2) The fact that amino acids and other chemicals used by earth based biology can form fairly readily has been known since the Miller-Urey experiment in the 1950s, this isn't news. The problem is there's a big gap between biologically active chemicals and biology itself, specifically a molecule that can replicate, evolve will a surrounding framework of chemistry. We don't yet know if THAT can spontaniously evolve anywhere or needs to very particular conditions that happened to exist on earth after it formed. Old news (Score:2) Well-known fact since Edgar the Bug.