Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the presence of ionized (electrically-charged) buckminsterfullerene in the interstellar medium — the gas and dust that fills interstellar space. The study was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
An artist’s concept depicting the presence of buckyballs in space. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Buckminsterfullerene, also known as ‘buckyballs,’ consists of 60 carbon atoms (C60) arranged in a hollow sphere.
This molecule has been seen in space before. However, this is the first time its ionized version (C60+) has been confirmed to be present in the diffuse interstellar medium. C60 gets ionized when UV light from stars tears off an electron from the molecule.
“The diffuse interstellar medium was historically considered too harsh and tenuous an environment for appreciable abundances of large molecules to occur,” said Dr. Martin Cordiner, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the Catholic University of America, Washington.
“Prior to the detection of C60, the largest known molecules in space were only 12 atoms in size. Our confirmation of C60+ shows just how complex astrochemistry can get, even in the lowest density, most strongly UV-irradiated environments in our Milky Way Galaxy.”
The Milky Way’s interstellar material is primarily located in a relatively flat disk, so lines of sight to stars in the Galactic plane traverse the greatest quantities of interstellar matter, and therefore show the strongest absorption features due to interstellar molecules.
Dr. Cordiner and colleagues used Hubble to analyze the light coming from seven blue supergiant stars in the plane of the Milky Way.
“Life as we know it is based on carbon-bearing molecules, and this discovery shows complex carbon molecules can form and survive in the harsh environment of interstellar space,” Dr. Cordiner said.
“In some ways, life can be thought of as the ultimate in chemical complexity. The presence of C60 unequivocally demonstrates a high level of chemical complexity intrinsic to space environments, and points toward a strong likelihood for other extremely complex, carbon-bearing molecules arising spontaneously in space.”
The team is seeking to detect C60+ in more environments to see just how widespread buckyballs are in the Universe.
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M.A. Cordiner et al. 2019. Confirming Interstellar C60+ Using the Hubble Space Telescope. ApJL 875, L28; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab14e5
