A team of scientists has made a welcome discovery after discovering naturally occurring sugar in the heart of the Milky Way, providing new insights into the origins of life on Earth.
According to the study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the findings provide clues to the source of the life-sustaining compound and how its vital presence ended up in all living things.
Sugar’s appearance on Earth has proven to be a long-standing mystery to researchers who knew it must have been present at the dawn of the cosmos, given that life depended on it, but whose attempts to recreate the chemical conditions that would have led to its emergence were largely unsuccessful, a study says.
Get the latest national news
Get the latest Canadian news delivered to your inbox as it happens, so you don’t miss the top stories.
Scientists believe that sugar may have been present on asteroids and comets that collided with Earth during the primordial period of the solar system, as several types of it were found on asteroids and meteorites, but the source of the chemical was previously unknown, according to a study.
Now a team of astrochemists led by Izascun Jiménez-Serra of the Center for Astrobiology in Spain say they have solved the mystery after discovering erythrulose – a sugar naturally found in raspberries and used in tanning products – drifting in the so-called interstellar medium (ISM), the expanse of dust and gas that fills the space between star systems within a galaxy.
Sugar was discovered in the central part of the Milky Way – that is, near the center where there is a dense concentration of gases and stars – about 26,700 light years from Earth.
The interstellar medium “is a spectacular chemical factory,” the study authors write, noting that hundreds of compounds have already been discovered there, including life-giving molecules that are believed to be the building blocks of RNA, a nucleic acid found in all living things.
Laboratory experiments described in the study suggested that the sugar detected could have formed from chemical reactions in ice deep in the ISM.
Jiménez-Serra and her colleagues used powerful telescopes to observe the frequencies emitted by molecules moving through the interstellar medium. By comparing them with the frequencies of the same compounds in the laboratory, the team was able to determine which molecules were bouncing around at the center of the galaxy. That’s how they found erythrulose.
“It was a very beautiful match,” Jimenez-Serra told the New York Times, “my heart started beating very, very fast.”
Associate Professor Brett McGuire, an MIT astrochemist who was not involved in the study, told the US publication that the team’s careful and extensive analysis of the results “supports their conclusion that the molecule exists.”
“They made a huge effort to find all possible offenders,” he said.
The study confirms that sugar can form in harsh interstellar environments, without the presence of life and before the appearance of stars and planets, providing further insight into how such chemicals arise and suggesting that many other molecules important for the emergence of life may also be present in the celestial reaches of outer space.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.