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These spherical carbon molecules – known as buckyballs – sway, shake and tremble, as if they were made of jelly.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The Hubble Space Telescope has recently uncovered new evidence for a particular molecule: undulating buckyballs, which have intrigued astrophysicists since their discovery in space nearly a decade ago.
Called Buckminsterfullerene, these larger molecules consist of 60 carbon atoms linked together by pentagons and hexagons to form a hollow sphere. The shape of these structures looks a lot like that of a soccer ball or geodesic domes designed by the twentieth century architect, Richard Buckminster Fuller (the inspiration of the name of the molecule).
The Buckyballs were seen in space as a gas in 2010, then as particles in 2012. Hubble has now spotted the first index of charged buckyballs hiding in the fine feathers of gas and dust drifting between the stars . the interstellar medium, scientists reported in a new study. [Spaced Out! 101 Astronomy Images That Will Blow Your Mind]
Buckyballs – the largest known molecules in space – exist on Earth in forms created by synthesis. These molecular giants also appear naturally, in the form of gas emitted by burning candles and solids in certain types of rocks, NASA had already reported.
The Buckyballs jiggle and jiggle "like jello", with 174 different vibration patterns, according to NASA.
Earlier observations of space buckyballs with the Spitzer Space Telescope have allowed the identification of molecules in a variety of cosmic environments and in quantities comparable to the mass of 10,000 Everest mountains.
To form a solid particle, the "buckyballs" must stack like oranges in a crate, as shown in this illustration.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
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The new study, published online April 22 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, explains how scientists have turned to Hubble's observations from 2016 to 1018 to learn more about buckyballs. Hubble captured light bands emitted by 11 stars; The researchers then scanned the spectrum – many of the energy wavelengths produced by the stars – as starlight passed through scattering clouds of the interstellar medium. A new scanning technique called the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) has produced a higher signal-to-noise ratio in the spectrum than Hubble's usually recorded, providing a clearer picture of molecules that can hide in deep space , reported the authors of the study.
The researchers scanned the wavelengths of light from seven stars that appeared to be red due to scattering across the interstellar medium and four stars that did not appear red. In the spectrum of reddish stars, the signatures of light absorption suggested the presence of buckyballs in the interstellar medium traversed by starlight.
Scientists have described their results as "conclusive confirmation" of buckyballs in the space between the stars, according to the study.
Their discovery demonstrates that regions of the space where ultraviolet radiation is high and the finely dispersed material – such as the interstellar medium – can support much larger carbon-containing molecules than previously thought, the researchers said.
Future observations of buckyballs, combined with theoretical and laboratory studies, will reveal how these unusual molecules interact with stars and other objects in space, and could reveal that these molecules could serve as "probes". Interstellar physics and chemistry, "the scientists wrote.
Originally published on Science live.
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