Posted on 07/22/2010 6:00:13 PM PDT by rickmichaels
University of Western Ontario astronomer Jan Cami holds a model of the C60 molecule buckminsterfullerene, also known as a buckyball, which he and his team have discovered in space using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. (CRAIG GLOVER/QMI Agency)
The buckyballs have been found — and by a Londoner, no less. The what? you ask.
One of the strongest molecular structures known to man, buckyballs are rare carbon molecules that resemble the structure of a soccer ball.
Discovered 25 years ago, by scientists who picked up a Nobel Prize for the achievement, buckyballs were thought to exist in outer space. But two and a half decades of looking came up empty.
Until now, that is: They were found in space by a team led by University of Western Ontario astronomer Jan Cami in the remains of a star located 6,500 light years from Earth.
That discovery, reported Thursday, drew immediate international attention from scientific publications and news outlets.
“Realizing people have been looking for this for a long time made it quite exciting,” Cami said at his campus office.
Buckyballs, given their name because of their resemblance to the geodesic domes created by architect Buckminster Fuller, were discovered by accident during experiments designed to reproduce conditions in space.
Scientists then expected they’d find buckyballs in the great beyond, but didn’t.
That was until February, when colleagues asked Cami to look at images taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope of a planetary nebula named Tc 1.
“I laid my eyes on the spectrum and I knew immediately what I was looking at, but it took me quite awhile to prove it. That was what all the work was about,” said Cami.
A statement released by Sir Harry Kroto, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Bob Curl and Rick Smalley for the original discovery of buckyballs, applauded Cami’s discovery.
“This most exciting breakthrough provides convincing evidence that the buckyball has, as I long suspected, existed since time immemorial in the dark recesses of our galaxy,” Kroto said.
Cami detected the buckyballs by analyzing infrared light from the planetary nebula.
It was fortunate the Spitzer telescope was aimed at the nebula at the right time to find the buckyballs, he said.
Buckyballs are made of 60 carbon atoms. On Earth, they’ve been found in meteorites and some minerals.
“It is one of the most stable, most durable molecules that we know of. Because they are so stable, they can withstand radiation and even cosmic ray bombardments to a certain extent,” said Cami.
Researchers are working on using the exceptional physical properties for applications such as armour, drug delivery and superconducting technologies.
The buckyball discovery was reported online Thursday in the journal Science.
I think buckminsterfullerene has been seen in space before, in teh UV and in IR.
One of the first papers talked about interstellar graphitic onion-structured molecules that the author later found to be c60.
I think I’ve found a new swear word substitute.
That’s a big buckyball.
Although I’m still trying to figure out why they named something after Buckminster Fuller’s testicles. Were they a great source of wisdom ?
Interesting. I usually see Buckeye ball on television.
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