Astronomy Picture of the Day 1-19-03

NASA ^ | 1-19-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 January 19

Fullerenes as Miniature Cosmic Time Capsules
Credit & Copyright: Keith Beardmore (LANL)

Explanation: Scientists have found, unexpectedly, tiny time capsules from billions of years in the past. The discovery involves small molecules that can apparently become trapped during the formation of large enclosed molecules known as fullerenes, or buckyballs. Luann Becker (UCSB) and collaborators recently found fullerenes in an ancient meteorite that fell to Earth about 30 years ago. Extra-terrestrial fullerenes inside the meteorite survived, and upon inspection, were not empty inside. The small molecules trapped inside are giving a glimpse of what the Solar System was like during its formation. Pictured above is a computer simulation showing a relatively small fullerene (60-atoms of carbon) situated above a hydrogenated silicon surface. How these fullerenes formed, how they survived, where else they can be found, and what else might be found inside these tiny time capsules is developing into an exciting area of research.

[petuniasevan]

Fullerenes are named for the architect Buckminster Fuller. If you're not familiar with his story or how his designs influenced us all, here's a link:

Buckminster Fuller Institute.

Especially poignant is the daughter's account of her father's promise fulfilled at her mother's deathbed.

[petuniasevan]

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[MeekOneGOP]

[firewalk]

Thanks for the ping....Good morning (-:

[xJones]

Especially poignant is the daughter's account of her father's promise fulfilled at her mother's deathbed.

Thanks for the link, that was poignant. Fuller and his beloved Anne died within 36 hours of each other. And he suffered his fatal massive heart attack at her hospital bedside, hoping that the near-comatose Anne was responding to him by squeezing his hand. Sigh.....

[SuziQ]

Especially poignant is the daughter's account of her father's promise fulfilled at her mother's deathbed

I was looking for this when at the site, but didn't find it. Where was this mentioned?

[sistergoldenhair]

Fascinating.

[petuniasevan]

You had to click the "Fuller's Life" link, then the "basic biography" link, then scroll to the bottom and click on the link in the sentence "Bucky and Anne died within 36 hours of each other". Here's the link:

http://www.bfi.org/bucky_fullers_death.htm

[panther33]

Now that's just a cheap shot... ;-)