Like the Milky Way (Candy Bar), the Milky Way (Galaxy) Contains Sugar
The inventory of ingredients for life that have been observed in space is large and growing
Last November an international team of astronomers made perhaps the
most significant such discovery to date: They found glycolÂaldehyde, a type of sugar, in a Milky Way stellar nursery 26,000 light-years away.
FIRST DETECTION OF GLYCOLALDEHYDE OUTSIDE THE GALACTIC CENTER*
Glycolaldehyde is the simplest of the monosaccharide sugars and is directly linked to the origin of life.
We report on the detection of glycolaldehyde (CH2OHCHO)
Glycolaldehyde is a key component in RNA, which may have driven the development of the first living cells on Earth. According to study author Serena Viti, an astrochemist at University College London, this is the first time that the molecule has been identified in a region of the galaxy that could be hospitable to life.
researchers have observed more than 140 molecules
increasingly complex organic ones
clipped from: discovermagazine.com 