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Asteroids May Have Brought Sugar to Earth

Posted by timothy on from the sugar-smacks dept.

CBNobi writes: "An article over at space.com reports of sugar-like substances contained in meteorite found on earth. This discovery may support the theory that life on earth was seeded from outer space."

3 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Not that kind of sugar! by LightBender · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's not that kind of sugar - not what you put in your coffee to make it sweet! I believe they are talking about four different sugars that make up DNA and RNA. These four sugars are called nucleotide bases and have the names adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. So, not quite as fun as rock candy. :)

    1. Re:Not that kind of sugar! by Happy+go+Lucky · · Score: 2, Informative
      It's not that kind of sugar - not what you put in your coffee to make it sweet! I believe they are talking about four different sugars that make up DNA and RNA. These four sugars are called nucleotide bases and have the names adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. So, not quite as fun as rock candy. :)

      Um, those are nucleic acids. They're definitely not sugars. All sugars (yes, ALL sugars) have the formula n(CH20). That means the composition is always an integer multiple of one carbon atom, two hydrogen atoms, and one oxygen atom. That's actually the definition of sugar (well, carbohydrate, anyway).

      All of the nucleic acids include amino groups, NH2. That makes this easy, since sugars NEVER include nitrogen. The only sugars involved in nucleotide bases are ribose and deoxyribose, both of which are five-carbon-atom sugars matching the formula above.

      I couldn't get to the article. I'm going to guess, however, that it was referencing simple carbohydrates, one- or two-carbon sugars.

  2. Nature by Schwamm · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are also a couple of articles over at Nature.

    Meteoritics: Life's sweet beginnings?

    and

    Carbonaceous meteorites as a source of sugar-related organic compounds for the early Earth