Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Buckyballs Detected In Space

Posted by timothy on from the you-may-know-his-work-from-epcot-center dept.

Rhodin writes "Fullerenes, also known as buckminsterfullerenes or 'buckyballs,' were detected about 6,500 light years from Earth in the cosmic dust of Tc 1 (PDF; abstract), an object known as a planetary nebula. 'We found what are now the largest molecules known to exist in space,' said astronomer Jan Cami of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. 'We are particularly excited because they have unique properties that make them important players for all sorts of physical and chemical processes going on in space.'" (More, below.) These results hark directly back to the experiments that originally identified Buckminsterfullerene, which mimicked the outer atmospheric chemistry of red giant carbon stars. Harry Kroto, who jointly won a Nobel Prize for this discovery in 1996, is excited by the findings' clarity. 'The spectrum is incredibly convincing,' the Florida State University academic said. 'I thought I would never be as convinced as I am. The fact that the four lines are there, and C70 is there, is just unbelievable. It's a spectacular paper.'"

6 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Cool by mcvos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I thought the fact that these had to be explicitly manufactured and seemed to be a human-invented molecule meant that they'd never appear naturally in space.

    Apparently there are no lab conditions on earth that are not duplicated somewhere else in the universe.

    1. Re:Cool by Velox_SwiftFox · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Soot was just so ordinary no one ever bothered to distill the different molecules out of it, to see if any had unusual properties.

      C60 is just too big a fraction, with too distinct properties, to have been missed otherwise for so long.

    2. Re:Cool by dbraden · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think I spent way too much time tracking this down ;)

      I finally found a version of it in a Japanese folktale called The Wise Old Woman by Yoshiko Uchida. Here's a version of it that looks like it was formatted for a play, but at least it's an easy read: The Wise Old Woman.

      Interesting story, thank you!

  2. We can detect tiny, molecules... by h4rm0ny · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and tell what they are at a distance that take light slightly longer than our recorded history as a species to travel.

    Fuck yeah!

    (That is all)

    --

    Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
  3. Actually by twisteddk · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, the C-60 has been known to exist (albeit in extremely limited number) in nature on earth. Fullerenes have later been found to exist also in very "short" chains, AFAIK down to like 20-30 atoms.
    The real challenge is making stuff like tubing in desired lengths and thickness. Though the ball that is the C-60 is also very intresting, because like some of the molecular medical delivery systems invested recently, you may be able to contain smaller molecules within. This is very helpfull for nano weaponry and medicines, where all you'd need is a molecular glue that will attach (only) to your target, a container (like the buckyball) something within the container, and some sort of trigger, as presumably the fulerenes are very very stable.

    --
    --- To err is human... Am I more human than most ?
  4. What? No Spaceballs jokes or references? by erroneus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Am I really that old?! Oh well...

    May da schwartz be witcha.