NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has announced a possible first-ever cosmic detection of flat carbon flakes called graphene in two small galaxies outside the solar system. Upon confirmation, researchers believe that it might hold vital clues on how life developed on Earth.

The carbon crystals are arranged like chicken wire in flat sheets that are one atom thick. Earlier, graphene was first synthesized in a lab in 2004, and subsequent research on its unique properties garnered the Nobel Prize in 2010.

Many researchers believe that the compound is a "material of the future" with applications in computers, screens on electrical devices, solar panels and more. However, currently, the scientists are not interested on finding how to craft "superfast" computers using the compound in space.

Researchers now are more interested in learning more about how it is created. They believe that understanding chemical reactions involving carbon in space may hold clues to how our own carbon-based selves and other life on Earth developed.

Signs of graphene were identified by Spitzer in two small galaxies called the Magellanic Clouds, specifically in the material shed by dying stars, called planetary nebulae. Apart from this, the infrared-sensing telescope also spotted a related molecule, called C70, in the same region, marking the first detection of this chemical outside our galaxy.

