SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The Hubble Space Telescope Has Just Found Solid Evidence of Interstellar Buckyballs
In the bewildering quagmire that is the gas between the stars, the Hubble Space Telescope has identified evidence of ionised buckminsterfullerene, the carbon molecule known colloquially as "buckyballs".
Containing 60 carbon atoms arranged in a soccer ball shape, buckminsterfullerene (C60) occurs naturally here on Earth - in soot. But in 2010, it was also detected in a nebula; in 2012 [open, DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2012.01213.x] [DX], it was found in gas orbiting a star. Now we have the strongest evidence yet that it's also floating in the interstellar medium - the sparse, tenuous gas between the stars.
"Combined with prior, ground-based observations .. our Hubble Space Telescope spectra place the detection of interstellar [buckminsterfullerene] beyond reasonable doubt," the researchers wrote in their paper [open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab14e5] [DX].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @04:43AM
"During experiments aimed at understanding the mechanisms by
which long-chain carbon molecules are formed in interstellar space
and circumstellar shells, graphite has been vaporized by laser
irradiation, producing a remarkably stable cluster consisting of
60 carbon atoms."