Astronomers have discovered the first true sugar molecule, erythrulose, in interstellar space near the centre of the Milky Way, a finding that could offer new clues about how the building blocks of life formed and reached Earth.

Since humanity first gazed up at the night sky, we’ve been driven by an insatiable curiosity to understand what lies beyond our pale blue dot. The past six decades of space exploration have delivered discoveries so profound that they’ve fundamentally ...