This past July, scientists discovered buckyballs--60-carbon-atom molecules, also known as fullerenes--in space. It was the first time that the captivating cage-shaped entities were seen in the Cosmos, which led many to wonder whether buckyballs were a rarity or a common element of the space environment. Researchers now have reported buckyball sightings around four other planetary nebulae--three in the Milky Way Galaxy and one in the nearby Small Magellanic Cloud--leading many to conclude that buckyballs are, in fact, everywhere.
The newly discovered buckyballs were detected with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the same instrument that detected the distinct buckyball infrared spectrum in the planetary nebula Tc 1 back in July. The molecules found around Tc 1 were thought to exist there because the star's surrounding environment was believed to be rich in carbon and poor in hydrogen, mimicking the conditions that scientists have known for decades are necessary for fullerene synthesis in the laboratory.
But the new buckyballs lie in hydrogen-rich environments, where scientists previously thought the molecules' formation unlikely. The coexistence of fullerenes and hydrogen around planetary nebulae has raised new questions about the formation of C60 molecules in space.
Because buckyballs were found in the Small Magellanic Cloud, the distance to which is known, the researchers were able to calculate the molecules' quantity around the buckyball-rich planetary nebula in that galaxy. The sheer abundance of the molecules--about two percent of Earth's mass (or 15 times the mass of our planet's Moon)--was somewhat surprising, considering that the presence of buckyballs in space is itself a very recent discovery.
Buckyball abundance, their carbon make-up, and their presence in meteorites and around stars within our galaxy suggest that these molecules could have been introduced onto our planet billions of years ago, hypothetically serving as the chemicals necessary for the evolution of life. But while some researchers are pondering the role of buckyballs in Earth's history, others are laying plans to investigate the composition of gases around the buckyball-rich planetary nebulae. These studies could provide important information about the evolution of these areas and the formation of fullerenes in space.
Photo credit: Andrew Hasson/FSP/Gamma Liaison