'Buckyball' Molecules Discovered in Another Galaxy

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'Buckyball' Molecules Discovered in Another Galaxy
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected huge quantities of buckyballs -- little spheres of carbon -- in outer space. The background of this artist's illustration is an infrared photo of the Small Magellanic Cloud, taken by Spitzer. The middle pullout shows a magnified view of an example of a planetary nebula, and the right pullout shows an even more magnified depiction of buckyballs, which consist of 60 linked carbon atoms. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.