Scientists have detected the largest molecules ever seen in space, in a cloud of cosmic dust surrounding a distant star. The football-shaped carbon molecules are known as buckyballs, and were only discovered on Earth 25 years ago when they were made in a laboratory.
These molecules are the "third type of carbon" - with the first two types being graphite and diamond.
The researchers report their findings in the journal Science. Buckyballs consist of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a three-dimensional sphere. The atoms are linked together in alternating patterns of hexagons and pentagons that, on the molecular scale, look exactly like a football.
They belong to a class of molecules called buckministerfullerenes - named after the architect Richard Buckminister Fuller, who developed the geodesic dome design that they so closely resemble.
The research group, led by Jan Cami from the University of Western Ontario in Canada, made its discovery using Nasa's Spitzer infrared telescope.
Wally Funk, a trailblazing aviation pioneer who was denied the opportunity to become a Nasa astronaut...
A well-worn expression among oceanographers and others who explore the watery depths of planet Earth is...
Within minutes of walking on a San Diego beach, marine ornithologist Tammy Russell found the feathered...
Sometime on Oct. 21 of last year, high above the Arctic Circle, a lone missile shot...
