Something surprisingly sweet lurks near the Milky Way’s heart
www.scientificamerican.com
Erythrulose—a sugar found in raspberries—is also prevalent in a giant molecular cloud close to our galaxy’s core, scientists have discovered

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Erythrulose, a sugar found in raspberries, kiwis and many red fruits, also apparently exists in a giant molecular cloud of gas and dust near the center of our galaxy, some 26,745 light-years from Earth. This marks the first time a sugar has been seen in interstellar space. The results have been published in Nature Astronomy

  • SillyDude@lemmy.zip
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    6 hours ago

    The dust that pervades the cloud’s cold, dark depths is key. Dust offers surfaces for atoms and molecules to glom onto, allowing them to become larger and more complex; it also blocks ultraviolet radiation and other high-energy light that could otherwise tear apart bigger compounds as they grow. Deeper in the clouds, more dust blocks more radiation, temperatures drop, and water and carbon dioxide ices coat the dust grains, along with molecules of increasing complexity.