NASA has found sugar in meteorites that crashed to Earth

"The research provides the first direct evidence of ribose in space and the delivery of the sugar to Earth," said Yoshihiro Furukawa of Japan's Tohoku University, lead author of the study, in the press release. "The extraterrestrial sugar might have contributed to the formation of RNA on the prebiotic Earth which possibly led to the origin of life."

I don't understand this. If the chemical processes that create Ribose are found on asteroids, wouldn't they have also likely been found on early Earth? Why do we need an extraterrestrial sugar hypothesis?

wouldn't they have also likely been found on early Earth?

Sure, but we cannot be certain about it, is what this study tells us. There is a possibility of exclusive extraterrestrial sugar. Whether exclusive or not, there is evidence some sugar on earth was delivered by the asteroids.

This suggests that sugars may not be that rare in the cosmos, but it still doesn't really get to the question of how they formed. If they are not the result of biological processes, then what are they the result of? And if they are the result of biological processes, well, that raises even more questions. This is what's great about discovery; the more you learn, the more questions you open up for further exploration.

You're right that it's a question to explore further, but there's absolutely no reason to think this is the result of biological processes. Ribose is basically just five water and carbon molecules combined. We find more complex molecules that have nothing to do with life all the time. I don't know how these particular molecules come to be an it's an interesting question, but it's almost certainly a non-biological chemical reaction.

I think what they meant was that enzymatic formation of ribose seems to be the easiest way to make ribose, and it seems like it would be a rare event otherwise. Sure, it is only 5 carbons and 5 waters (essentially), but to synthesize the sugar non-enzymatically seems unlinkely.

If the chemical processes that create Ribose are found on asteroids, wouldn't they have also likely been found on early Earth?

Not necessarily. The chemical environment on an asteroid could be very different than the conditions of early earth. Ribose made in space could arise through different mechanisms compared to ribose made on earth. Different atmospheres (or a total lack of atmosphere), different types of radiation, different temperatures... these are very different environments.

Of course these aren't mutually exclusive things, since it's possible that ribose can be made in various environments, but finding the ribose on an asteroid makes one ask how it got there.

Why do we need an extraterrestrial sugar hypothesis?

I don't think we need, it's just that finding ribose on an asteroid opens the door a bit wider towards that possibility, so it leads to some new questions being explored. Just because ribose was on an asteroid doesn't mean that ribose could not have also been made on earth.

Its evidence further supporting the panspermia hypothesis.
At least it helps give us an idea on where to look for life, what kinda conditions would be mostly advantageous.

No, it does not give evidence for panspermia. Panspermia is the hypothesis that life gets transported from one planetary body to another, even across solar systems, by small rocky/icy bodies like asteroids and comets. However, this foes support the idea that life's components were formed and arrived from outer space, which is exciting by itself.

FYI, we'd have to be able to prove the meteorite was from outside our solar system for the focus to shift like your suggesting. So far nothing in this has showed any indication it was formed in space itself. Not really possible according to the physics we know. For all we know that particular meteor may have come from something like the Great Impact theory, or even an Extrasolar planet fragment.
Remember, we don't put our wants on to the evidence. That's changing the data to suit your theory, we do the opposite. Changing the theory to suit the data.