Sugar in Space

At www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/5940/sugar-found-near-two-star-system/ … sugar molecules have been discovered in the gas surrounding a binary star system 400 light years from the Earth, according to Danish astronomers. It seems that molecules of glycolaldehyde, described as a simple sugar, have been found in space before but this is the first time they have been seen moving around a star in the kind of formation that may lead to planets. Glycolaldehyde is a 2 carbon sugar that can react with 3 carbon sugar to produce ribose which forms the backbone structure of DNA – hence, life.