The universe just got a little sweeter as astronomers from the Spanish Astrobiology Center (CSIC-INTA) announced they have discovered sugar in the Milky Way.

Sci News reports,

Using the Yebes 40-m and IRAM 30-m radio telescopes, the astronomers scanned the molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027, a chemically rich region located roughly 8,200 parsecs (26,745 light-years) from Earth near the Milky Way's center.

They picked up 12 sets of radio emission lines that matched the predicted spectral fingerprint of erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar with the chemical formula C4H8O4.

‘FErythrulose, with 14 atoms in its structure, represents the largest non-cyclic molecular species identified so far in the interstellar medium, and the first detected molecule containing four oxygen atoms,' they said.

Scientists are touting this as another discovery of the "building blocks of life."

As it turns out, the entire universe is full of such building blocks, but the only planet where those inert blocks have actually become life - and not just that, but wildly complex life! - is just a giant cosmic accident, according to our "smartest" experts.

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