Buckyballs - Cosmic Soccer Balls

/ sciencereason ... NASA/JPL: Buckyballs Fullerenes - Cosmic Soccer Ball Molecules.
Mini soccer balls in space: The World Cup may be over, but there are soccer balls still bouncing in space. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered soccerball-shaped molecules, known as "buckyballs".
The animation illustrates that buckyballs closely resemble old fashioned, black-and-white soccer balls, only on much smaller scales.
Buckyballs jiggle like jello: The artist's animation illustrates vibrating buckyballs -- spherical molecules of carbon discovered in space for the first time by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
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A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube. Spherical fullerenes are also called buckyballs, and cylindrical ones are called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes. Fullerenes are similar in structure to graphite, which is composed of stacked graphene sheets of linked hexagonal rings; but they may also contain pentagonal (or sometimes heptagonal) rings.
The first fullerene to be discovered, and the family's namesake, was buckminsterfullerene C60, prepared in 1985 by Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley at Rice University. The name was an homage to Richard Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic domes it resembles. Fullerenes have since been found to occur (if rarely) in nature.
The discovery of fullerenes greatly expanded the number of known carbon allotropes, which until recently were limited to graphite, diamond, and amorphous carbon such as soot and charcoal. Buckyballs and buckytubes have been the subject of intense research, both for their unique chemistry and for their technological applications, especially in materials science, electronics, and nanotechnology.
• en.wikipedia.or...
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[@handplanty]

@teemuruskeepaa They came across it when looking at the planetary nebula Tc 1 and found it by chance. There wasn't one frequency, Spitzer took a spectrogram. That's whene you measure the intensity of light over a range of wavelengths. When you compare the observations a telescope makes to obvervations of the same molcules in the laboratory and the graphs match, that means you know what you're looking at (because each element and molecule has a distinct spectral signature).

[@kattavia92dva]

Really fascinating! I did a project about nanotechnology and brain in high school, about how buckyballs could be used as drag carriers to tumors, multifunctional carrier vectors. I'd definitely like to learn more about them now that I'm at the uni.

[@Yesrly1]

Space is full of balls? ... Wow.

[@Kurtlane]

@iamthewalrus97, in honor of Buckminster Fuller, who went nuts about these structures on macro scale.

[@handplanty]

@teemuruskeepaa They detected the infrared light spectrum emitted by buckyballs, which is unique to buckyballs only, with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrometer.

[@truvelocity]

@ThaDRP This form of carbon has been known since the late 1920's, its just that they discovered it floating around in space in dust clouds of other matter.

[@BINKIE2000]

If you make one out of balls and sticks you'll find you can easily flatten it without breaking or stretching any of the bonds.

[@jvangiel]

@guitardemon6 Guitardemon, to be clear, I like America and his citizens. I was there on holidays last summer. You have a beautiful coutry and I met many open and social people.

[@questionsleadtotruth]

This is incredible. I just finished reading 3001: Odyssey 4 by Arthur C. Clarke today and in the last few pages he states buckminsterenes / buckyballs. I come home and go onto youtube and in my subsciptions is a new vid uploaded called buckyballs. Blew my mind, i love cosmic coincidences like that.

[@YASH-cz6ir]

Hey its been 11years hope you are doing great!

[@prayfortruejustice]

The beautiful game uses Buckyballs! 12/20+1

[@jvangiel]

@guitardemon6 The answer is very simple: because it gives the impression that you think that you are the centre of the world and everybody has to adapt to America. This whole thing started when the world foodballcup was organised by the USA and all of a sudden you detected that there was a name conflict with a game that only you play (and not the rest of the world), so the logical humble position should have been to rename your own game instead, which by the way, is not played with feet.

[@ScarRavenInk]

What an amazing structure.

[@handplanty]

@teemuruskeepaa they didn't, NASA has an article on it, you can find it by googling "NASA finds elusive buckyballs in space". I found the article reproduced on several different NASA websites, so you can't miss it. They say they're elusive because they've been looking for them for 25 years now and only now have they found them. Just for somebody thinking it's really a hoax... (those people exist)

[@buckfushes]

Of Course!!!!!!

[@Kayzaks]

This is proof that Aliens exist on a low-gravity planet and keep kicking their footballs into space! Damn those space poluting Aliens!

[@kennegun]

NO ONE bends it like Bucky!

[@Craigipedia]

what can you do with a bucky ball? i mean, they are super cool... but can you use them for anything

[@JohnRampton]

Great video, love it!

[@BINKIE2000]

Or is the flexibility vested in the 'angle' of each orbit line, which is what I now suspect.

[@n8style]

I have a quick question...Carbon atoms have a valency of 4, but the buckyball only shows each atom being connected to 3 other atoms, what happened to the other bond? Is there a double bond somewhere? Or does it become metallic like where the electrons are shared out all over the molecule?

[@dakota-ruby]

I like that wallpaper on his pc.

[@kevinbeazy]

Very interesting.

[@Craigipedia]

@Starbat88 that's how we make nanotubes? didn't know. however, what's the point of finding them in space? I mean, they are tough and can exist in the interstellar medium... okay... what does that mean though. Sometimes science finds stuff that doesn't make much sense. I'm reminded of this from The Onion - watch?v=S6CSIFi78Nw

[@jvangiel]

anyhow. For the rest, I really liked this film.

[@jfeuiebf]

FiFa should return to this kind of ball

[@lyrimetacurl0]

Anton Petrov made a video saying this was new in 2019 when I remember seeing this video in 2010 😏

[@spencerschultz]

@13eyond13irthday030 You are correct.

[@franhollynda1972]

Research graphine it looks the same as this but flat ,its the smallest mass u can get before atoms

[@Branimir9000]

Thanks- nice demo- I am reading "The Grand Design" by Hawking and Mlodinow and am scouring the net for video and animation to help me visualize some of the things discussed therein. Anybody know of a demo for the bucky ball/two slot experiment? Thanks!

[@bitnola]

Wonder if they're carrying anything.

[@Psenas]

What about vuvuzelas in space?

[@Craigipedia]

@Starbat88 I mean, we don't even make nanotubes (at least, not in a commercial viable industrial sense) we just talk about making them. So I don't know what the utility of knowing that little carbon molecules exist billions of miles away can have for any actual research. Maybe I'm just really out of the loop, but the guy doesn't seem to say anything that is scientifically compelling.

[@VileMike]

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! (Sorry couldn't help it)

[@othernamesdidntwork]

@absentmindedprof carbon nanotubes come pretty close to them

[@BINKIE2000]

What holds the carbon atoms out from the centre? Why don't they collapse?

[@spidergeist1]

Yes. But where are their wheels?

[@Snowflake70]

Of course I'm a Bucky nut but must know the name / origin of that background music... a little help?

[@HandBrakeDownload]

How large exactly are these buckyballs? Are we talking small landmasses or planet sized?

[@veg.1813]

These things are 10,000 stronger than steel and weigh only a sixth of a similar piece of steel. Imagine the possibilities!

[@curseofgladstone4981]

Val G. they are also very small balls. itnwould be like trying to make something out of sand

[@curseofgladstone4981]

sand which is as small to normal sand as sand is to a building

[@Lygre]

Goooooooooooool!!!

[@BINKIE2000]

By what percecentage (if any) can an orbit line stretch?

[@thecaneater]

NOOOO!!! The vuvuzela's are back!! AHHH!!! My ears!!

[@JayJayAbels]

How, if these "bucky balls" are microscopic carbon molecules, can the Spitzer Space Telescope even detect them? I get the whole "wavelengths of light" concept... but these things are tiny. If anyone can explain I'd appreciate it! Also... how abundant are these things?

[@Phelan666]

Astronomy can be appropriately described as "statistical supposition".

[@absentmindedprof]

I just hope they don't find a form of carbon that takes the form of a vuvuzela.

[@joaquinmateo6588]

Are a shot every time he says “Buckyballs”

[@xphragamer6963]

Lol. Imagine 2 old chaps (just to fit with the old trend) saying lets go play some buckie me lad!

[@JackUKBIB]

I can't help but feel they need a more mature name... Anyway, thanks for the video!

[@AYAAN-el3oz]

here in 2021

[@habybaamer4702]

It's very good

[@DSAhmed]

NASA discovers spaceballs.

[@lettusgonow]

this is crazy this guy is my astronimy teacher, he's hardcore

[@vistigioful]

There are magnetic balls called buckyballs. Maybe they are talking about those lol.

[@jvangiel]

Suckerballs? I suppose he means Footballs. to my opinion there is no game that is called "soccer". There is only a game they play in the USA, which they call "football", but has nothing to do with football. It's not because Americans alone play that game that they have the right to give the game that the rest of the world plays with their feet, another name. they should instead rename their own game.

[@princeofexcess]

@spencerschultz lal

[@luiztrazh]

Incorrect.

[@spencerschultz]

ZOMG! It looks designed!!! Finally proof of an intelligent designer!!1ONE

[@venomoussloth5092]

Atoms naturally form efficient/stable isotopes. If you have a universe this old with the insane amount of carbon-carbon collisions it has, of course structures like these are going to form. I’d also like to point out that these were discovered in a lab after being shot with insanely powerful lasers. It isn’t like you could find them in nature by your own.

[@spock431]

god sure likes soccer

[@veg.1813]

Nanotubes, that is.

[@an22000]

It's not a freaking soccer ball it's a football!!!!

[@xtremetom180]

yes yes its a football

[@williamkendrick]

i suppose that in the end it all comes down to one thing; information. i personally dont get why a sport that doesn't kick the ball very far should be called football, but if i said that where i live? they'd put me on trial for treason, lol. soccer (the name) makes little sense anyway. i'm an american who doesn't care about sports. go figure.

[@Phelan666]

This vid needs a vuvuzela button.

[@Farf420]

thats almost as boring as soccer