Glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol detected around Sagittarius B2

(Phys.org)—Using the Shanghai Tianma 65m Radio Telescope (TMRT) a team of Chinese astronomers has detected a widespread presence of glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol around the giant molecular cloud Sagittarius B2. The finding, presented Sept. 29 in a paper published on arXiv.org, could be important for studies of prebiotic molecules in the interstellar medium.