Tracing Prebiotic Molecules: Rotational Spectroscopy of Deuterated Glycolaldehyde and ()-1,2-Ethenediol.

Glycolaldehyde, an important prebiotic molecule, along with its monodeuterated species and its higher energy tautomer, ()-1,2-ethenediol, has been detected in the interstellar medium. Although the elemental D/H ratio in the universe is only ∼1.6 × 10, the deuterium relative abundance in interstellar molecules might be by far larger than this.