Sweet! Astronomers spot sugar molecule near star

(take a moment and think about how awesome this is, not that there may be complex sugars out there, but that scientists are looking at molecules across interstellar distances!

BERLIN — Astronomers say that, for the first time, they have discovered one of the ingredients of life — sugar — in a gas cloud surrounding a young star.

The team of European and American astronomers says it spotted a simple sugar molecule called glycolaldehyde near a 10,000-year-old star similar to the sun.

Glycolaldehyde is needed to form ribonucleic acid, or RNA, which is similar in function to DNA.

Jes Jorgensen of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, said Wednesday that the glycolaldehyde was likely formed by radiation from the star hitting even simpler molecules floating through space.

The star, called IRAS 16293-2422, is about 400 light years from Earth.

Details of the discovery at the European Southern Observatory in Chile will be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Man, wife, dogs dead in apparent murder-suicide

COMMERCIAL TOWNSHIP, N.J. - New Jersey State Police say a Cumberland County woman apparently killed her husband, two dogs and herself.

Commercial Township public works employees went to Scott Rector's home Wednesday after Rector had not reported for work all week.

State Police Lt. Stephen Jones says they entered the trailer after smelling a foul odor and found the bodies on the bed. A handgun was also found on the bed.

The dogs, 30-year-old Scott Rector and his 28-year-old wife all had single gunshot wounds.

Jones says Stacy Rector left a note, but he would not disclose the contents.