In 2004, the scientists awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2010, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, synthesized thegraphene in the laboratory. Just seven years later, this material of extraordinary strength, thinness and elasticity could have been found in space. A team led by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has just published inThe Astrophysical Journal Lettersthefirst evidence for the possible existence of C24, a flat two-dimensional molecule one atom thick, a possible “piece of graphene” in space. For definitive confirmation of the finding, laboratory spectra of C24 would have to be obtained, which is almost impossible with current techniques. ? I believe that our work will encourage laboratory experts to develop new techniques to characterize this and other molecules, and even other forms of carbon that could be present in space, such as nanotubes, nanodiamonds, carbon onions, etc. .?, says the director of the research, the IAC astrophysicist Domingo Aníbal García Hernández.
Due to its high thermal and electrical conductivity, thegraphene has promising technological applications, such as the manufacture of new materials and advanced electronic devices (computers faster than those with silicon transistors, electronic device screens, solar panels …). Being transparent, thin as a hair, and being able to develop from it materials 200 times stronger than steel, expectations about graphene as the material of the future have not stopped growing.
Spanish scientists have also detectedin ten planetary nebulaeof two nearby galaxies theC60 and C70 fullerenes. It is the first extragalactic detection of fullerene C70, which, made up of pentagons and hexagons, is shaped like a tiny rugby ball. “The presence of such complex molecules as graphenes and fullerenes in space, around stars like our Sun when they are old, indicates thatthe basic physical processes for creating life may be more common than we thought, which suggests that life could be created in any corner of the universe, “say the study authors.
In fact, fullerenes could act ascages for other molecules and atoms, so that they could have carried substances to Earth that would have prompted the beginning of life. The evidence for this theory comes from the fact that these molecules have been found in meteorites carrying extraterrestrial gases.
