Overview
- A team led by Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología reported the first peer‑reviewed detection of the four‑carbon sugar eritrulosa in the molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027 near the Milky Way center, a result published in Nature Astronomy.
- The identification rests on multiple laboratory‑measured radio spectral transitions matched to data from the Yebes 40‑m and IRAM 30‑m telescopes, with the authors estimating about a 0.2% chance the match is random.
- Measured abundances show eritrulosa is at least eight to seventeen times more common in that cloud than comparable three‑carbon sugars, a pattern the team reproduced with quantum and ice‑grain chemical models.
- Using the observed abundance and bombardment scenarios, the authors estimate roughly 0.5–50 million tonnes of eritrulosa could have been delivered to early Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, though the number is model dependent.
- Researchers stress this does not prove a role for interstellar sugars in the origin of life and say next steps include targeted searches for ribose, wider surveys of other clouds, and laboratory work to test formation and stability under nebular conditions.