Erythrulose is the subject of the latest discovery in space. According to a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, researchers used two radio telescopes located in Spain to gather data from a large gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way in a region traversed by NASA’s twin Voyager probes. The discovery? The identification of a sugar in gaseous form, achieved by comparing signals from the telescopes with samples analyzed in the laboratory.
Erythrulose—found in raspberries and used in self-tanning products—is not the first sugar discovered in space; a similar discovery was made 25 years ago. This type of sugar, one of the most complex identified to date outside Earth’s atmosphere, is not essential for life itself, yet it is a key ingredient in explaining certain steps in the origin of life on Earth; sugar serves purposes beyond sweetening coffee or making desserts—its various forms fuel our cells and even make up DNA.
https://www.nature.com/natastron/
