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discoverynews:

What Do Buckyballs Really Look Like?

Buckyballs — or buckminsterfullerines, named after American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller — are the fun-sized micro-soccer balls of the molecular world. Composed of 60 carbon atoms linked through strong bonds, buckyballs are known to be floating around inside beautiful nebulae in the furthest-most reaches of our galaxy. They are also found in the soot produced by a burning candle.

These carbon molecules, and their larger family of fullerines and graphine, have many futuristic applications for industry on Earth. Everything from boosting superconducting materials to improving body armor to investigating some of the oddities of the quantum world; it seems there’s no limit to these different arrangements of carbon atoms.

Now our understanding of cosmic buckyballs has increased with the Spitzer Space Telescope discovery of buckyball “particles” surrounding the binary star system XX Ophiuchi. Finding cosmic sources of these particles may ultimately help us understand where life itself began.

So, let’s celebrate the buckyball by looking at some of the best artistic renderings and real photos of these captivating structures.

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(via scinerds)