Evidence of erythrulose ‘particularly relevant’ for origin-of-life research

Astronomers have detected signs of a type of sugar found in raspberries in gas clouds near the centre of our galaxy the Milky Way.

An international team of scientists has examined dust grains gathered by the NASA Stardust spacecraft and brought back to Earth – and has discovered that they originated in the interstellar dust stream. With the help of citizen scientists, the research ...

New research has found that amino acids, the building blocks of life, may have traveled to Earth on interstellar dust grains, potentially helping kickstart biology as we know it. In a recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical ...

Interstellar dust constitutes only a small fraction of the mass in the interstellar medium, yet it exerts a profound influence on astrophysical processes. Grains composed of silicates, carbonaceous materials and metallic compounds absorb and scatter ...