Mysteries Behind Interstellar Buckyballs Finally Answered
Mimicking conditions thought to exist around dying stars, researchers discovered a mechanism that could explain why planetary nebulae are teeming with complex carbon molecules.
Rachel Abraham, NASA Space Grant Science Writing Intern, University Communications, Nov. 13, 2019
My
understanding of the story is Sir Harold Kroto, astronomer, first
detected C60 using telescopic spectroscopy. He hypothesized the
buckyball structure, whereas others supposed chain polymers. The Rice
University team was enlisted, as their lasers and mass spectrometers
would help narrow it down.
The verdict: buckyballs form naturally in soot.
The verdict: buckyballs form naturally in soot.
Getting pure C60 remained a major technical problem and cost more than gold by weight in the 1980s. In short: C60 was detected in interstellar space before anyone tried to synthesize and detect it in the lab. You can see how my story deviates from the story provided.
