2026-07-21 12:15:34
A naturally occurring sugar found in raspberries and even used in fake tan lotions has been discovered floating in deep space for the first time.
Astronomers detected the simple sugar erythrulose inside a vast cloud of gas and dust near the centre of the Milky Way, marking the first time any sugar has been identified in the interstellar medium.
The discovery suggests compounds essential for life may form naturally between the stars before being delivered to planets by comets and asteroids.
Scientists believe the sugar is created when organic molecules combine on microscopic dust grains at temperatures as low as minus 250C.
Lead researcher Dr Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, from Spain’s Centre for Astrobiology near Madrid, said: “This is the very first sugar to be detected in interstellar space and it is important because it tells us that these sugars are more common than we previously thought.
“It opens the possibility for life to develop on other worlds in a similar fashion to what it did on Earth.”
The team made the discovery using two Spanish radio telescopes while studying a cloud known as G+0.693-0.027.
After failing to detect smaller three-carbon sugars, the researchers were surprised to find the signature of erythrulose instead.
Writing in Nature Astronomy, they suggest the sugar forms when glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol react on interstellar dust particles before eventually becoming incorporated into comets or meteorites.
Scientists believe millions of tonnes of the compound may have reached Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment, when countless asteroids and comets struck the young planet billions of years ago.
The sugar is thought to have helped create the chemical “prebiotic soup” from which the first building blocks of life emerged.
Professor Yoshihiro Furukawa, from Tohoku University in Japan, said: “We have been waiting for an actual detection like this.
“Sugars formed in the interstellar medium can reach Earth and other planets via cometary dust … This supply may have helped facilitate the emergence of life, if planetary environments were able to build life from such molecules, although that process itself remains unclear.”
The discovery strengthens the idea that some of life’s essential ingredients may be far more common across the cosmos than previously believed.
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