Reacción a "Sugar has been detected in interstellar space by the radio telescopes at Yebes in Guadalajara and Pico Veleta in the Sierra Nevada"

The presence of numerous prebiotic organic molecules in meteorites and asteroids, including some monosaccharides, is well established. However, their origin remains unclear. One obvious possibility is that they are initially formed in the so-called interstellar medium. Until now, however, no genuine sugar had been detected there. Erythrulose, a four-carbon ketomonosaccharide, is the first. One of the keys to its detection in the molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027 was the acquisition of its rotational spectrum in the laboratory using an ultrafast laser vaporisation technique that enables the compound to be studied in the gas phase. The observations were carried out with the Yebes 40 m telescope (Guadalajara, Spain) and the IRAM 30 m telescope (Granada, Spain). The possible molecular mechanisms involved in the synthesis of erythrulose can be understood through a combination of quantum-kinetic modelling and astrochemical studies. Much of this work relied on technology and software developed in Spain, building on the extensive expertise of the participating research groups in the field of astrochemistry.