Buckyballs Can Come from Outer Space

Carbon-rich meteorites that crash to Earth carry a wealth of information from far-flung regions of outer space. Now, it seems that some extraterrestrial baggage survives the long journey intact. A new study shows that carbon molecules known as fullerenes can originate outside the solar system and ride in on meteors.

A buckyball with a trapped atom of gas, perhaps from outer space (top).