Astronomers that were searching a giant dust cloud known as Sagittarius B2 in the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, have discovered and concluded that it might taste vaguely like raspberries.

This unanticipated discovery comes from years of work by astronomers; the astronomers trained their 30m radio telescope on a large ball of dust and gas with the hope of finding the complex molecules vital to life. The amino acids they were searching for have been compared to the Holy Grail of astrobiologists. This would raise the possibility of life emerging on other planets after being seeded with these molecules.

In one of the latest surveys, astronomers waded through thousands of signals from Sagittarius B2, the enormous gas cloud at the center of our galaxy. Even though they failed to identify any evidence of the amino acids, they found a substance known as ethyl formate, a chemical that appears as C3H6O2. This is the chemical that causes the flavor or raspberries.

Last year, the team came close to identifying amino acids in space through the discovery of a molecule that can contribute to making them, called amino acetonitrile. These molecules are as large as the simplest amino acid, glycine. These discoveries have improved the possibilities of finding amino acids, something widely regarded to be critical for complex life to exist in the universe.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we find an amino acid out there in the coming years.