Humans Have Discovered the First “Interstellar Sugar”—Erythrose

This paper reports the first detection of a four-carbon sugar—erythrose—in the Galactic Center molecular cloud G+0.693, marking the first confirmation of the existence of “sugar molecules” in interstellar space. The study leveraged ultra‑high‑sensitivity radio‑survey data from the Yebes 40‑m and IRAM 30‑m telescopes, reliably identifying the molecular signal by matching multiple rotational transition lines and ruling out the possibility of spectral aliasing.

Source of the report: A paper published on July 13, 2026, in the British journal Nature Astronomy.

The study leveraged ultra‑high‑sensitivity radio‑survey data obtained with the Yebes 40‑m and IRAM 30‑m telescopes, and by cross‑matching multiple molecular rotational transitions, it unambiguously identified the molecular signal while ruling out the possibility of aliasing.

Observational results indicate that the abundance of erythrose is even higher than that of simpler three-carbon sugars, suggesting the possible existence of unexpected synthetic pathways in interstellar chemistry.

Theoretical models further indicate that this sugar can be efficiently synthesized on the surfaces of interstellar dust grains via radical reactions involving simple two-carbon molecules, such as glyoxal and ethylene glycol, and may remain stable in the low-temperature environments of molecular clouds.

Since tetroses can be converted in aqueous environments into more crucial pentose precursors—such as ribose—this discovery offers a potential interstellar origin for key biomolecules like RNA, supporting the idea that “essential biomolecules could have been pre‑synthesized in the interstellar medium and delivered to planets.”

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