Would You Like Sugar With Your Stars? Sugar Detected in Interstellar Space for the First Time

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authors of the paper describing the observation didn’t suggest there were pallid aliens working on their tan, rather, that a 4-carbon sugar can actually form in rather base mixtures of matter, before coalescing into planets. The Spanish scientists at a research center called CSIC-INTA used 2 radio-wave telescopes in their own country to pick up signals from a large cloud of gas near the center of the Milky Way called G+0.693-0.027. The data returned by the telescopes was then subjected to spectroscopy analysis. In spectroscopy, the spectrum of light reflecting off of molecules can be examined to the end of determining exactly what kind of molecule it is. In this case, the scientists say it’s erythrulose beyond any doubt. “The detection of the first sugar in interstellar space suggests that the key ingredients for life can form in molecular nebula before stars and planets form,” study...