Overview
- An international team led by Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología reported the detection of the four‑carbon sugar eritrulosa in the molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027, a result published in Nature Astronomy in mid‑July 2026.
- The identification rests on laboratory rotational spectra measured at the Universidad del País Vasco and wideband, high‑sensitivity radio surveys from the Yebes 40 m and IRAM 30 m telescopes that returned 12 matching spectral lines.
- Authors propose eritrulosa forms on icy surfaces of interstellar dust from simpler two‑carbon precursors, and they find it at least eight times more abundant than analogous three‑carbon sugars in that cloud.
- Using the measured abundance the team estimates that between 0.5 and 50 million tonnes of eritrulosa could have been delivered to early Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, a number that depends on debated impact and retention assumptions and does not imply past or present extraterrestrial life.
- Researchers say the result broadens the inventory of prebiotic molecules and will prompt targeted searches for other sugars such as ribose plus laboratory and modeling work to test formation pathways and check whether similar chemistry exists elsewhere in the galaxy.