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It Came From Beyond ... In Buckyballs!

Posted by timothy on from the good-things-small-packages dept.

ooky writes: "Scientists at NASA have claimed to have found conclusive proof that gases from outside the solar system can arrive on Earth (and other planets, presumably) in neat little buckyball cages! They've found a type of helium 3 that does not exist (nor, presumably, has ever existed) in our solar system in these fullerene packages, deposited in a layer around the Earth dating from the 65 MYBP dino-killing asteroid collision. Some of our own atmosphere may have arrived this way during the Age of Bombardment! For more info on buckyballs and what they are, see here and here." The article is boundingly enthusiastic rather than the least bit skeptical, so take it with a few mols of (fullerinzed) sodium chloride. Still ...

3 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. How DO they cram all that graham.... by Mostly+Harmless · · Score: 4

    Just thought I'd pass along some interesting information.... The buckyball (or buckminsterfullerene) is technically termed isocahedral C60. It's a molecule made up of 60 carbon atoms arranged to form a sphere consisting of 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons. It was discovered by Richard Smalley and Harry Kroto, and named after Buckminster Fuller for his work on the geodesic dome, which it resembles. Furthermore, the buckyball is an insolator, but can be "doped" to make what is called a dopyball. Scientists crack open the ball with lasers, add other elements (potassium, rubidium, thallium, etc...), and reseal the ball. This is VERY similar to how silicon wafers are doped. These dopyballs are superconductors, but they don't follow most of the traditional rules (i.e., temperature and energy relations, etc). Perhaps superstrong, supercheap (you can make them at home...sort of) computer components can be made from them... think of the possibilities!

    --
    "`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'" -Douglas Adams, THHGTTG
  2. New type of Helium 3, I think not. by Shimbo · · Score: 4
    The sense of the original paper seemed to have got mangled. There is no such thing as 'a different sort of Helium 3'; Helium 3 has a nucleus made of two protons and one neutron, rather than the more usual two of each. That's it. You can't have a slightly different sort.

    Most helium around comes from fusing hydrogen in stars, and ends up as Helium 4. 'Stardust' as Joni Mitchell would have it. Helium 3 on the other hand, has been lurking around since the big bang. Like, 'cosmic', man.

  3. Yahoo and Slashdot have the details wrong by pmc · · Score: 5
    See Nasa home page and NASA's version of the story for the details. Here is the abstract of the article.

    Yahoo (and the Slashdot story) has it wrong in that the helium is extraterristial NOT necessarily from outside the solar system. He3 is in fact found in the solar wind: the crust of the moon, for example, is thought to enriched in He3 from the solar wind.

    He3 does exist on earth (and in the rest of the Solar System for that matter). What is different is the ratio of He4 to He3 on Earth and in most of the rest of the solar system. What the article should say is that

    1) Helium is trapped inside Bucky-balls found in asteriod impact sites and 2) The He4 to He3 ratio is the same as the ratio in the rest of the solar system and is not the same as that on earth.

    This implies that 1) Buckyballs formed in space 2) They can trap gases in them and 3) They can survive extremely violent impact.

    Slashdot - please, please, please check the original sources for stories.