Cold Sugar Cloud Found in Space

Roland Piquepaille writes "A cloud filled with simple molecules of sugar has been found 26,000 light-years away from us, near the middle of our galaxy. The 8-atom sugar molecules exist in a gas cloud named Sagittarius B2 at a temperature of only 8 degrees above absolute zero. Too far and too cold to bake your next cake! However, even if chemistry reactions on Earth and in this frigid sugar cloud are very different, astronomers think this discovery "suggests how the molecular building blocks necessary for the creation of life could first form in interstellar space." Please read the original article for more details or just enjoy these illustrations describing how prebiotic chemistry -- the formation of the molecular building blocks necessary for the creation of life -- occurs in interstellar clouds."

Comments

Good science or showboating quote?

[Jerf]

Is "suggests how the molecular building blocks necessary for the creation of life could first form in interstellar space." good science, or a showboating quote?

I ask because last I checked, "sugar" is hardly a "building block" of life. Proteins, sure, even amino acids which I think are a bit of a stretch in a way, but mere sugar? Sugar builds nothing and is only slightly more complicated than water, compared to even a simple protein, AFAICS.

Re:What if formed on a planet first?

[Anonymous Coward]

With what a broom?

That seems incredibly unlikely, as whatever force could "sweep" the sugar molecules off the plant would probably destroy them. Unless of course the plant was a giant donut (glazed of course). Mmmm. Donut.

8 Degrees...

[AmiMoJo]

... centigrade, farenheit, kelvin? Guess I should RTFA, but it's nice to have these little details in the summary for those (like me) who don't care enough about giant space sugar clouds to actually do that.