NASA's Hubble Space Telescope discovered these electrically charged molecules shaped like soccer balls. These "buckyballs" could shed insight on the creation of stars and planets.
Up above most of the atmosphere, the Hubble Space Telescope had an unobstructed view to observe the Diffuse Interstellar Bands, or DIBs, which are absorption features seen in astronomical objects. When we observe starlight, a broad range of colors are missing, and in patterns unlike any known atoms or molecules on Earth. These are the DIBs.
After peering at blue supergiant stars along our galactic plane, the telescope spotted an absorption pattern scientists recognized, the signature of a molecule called C60.
C60, made up of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a hollow sphere, strongly resembles a soccer ball, or the geodesic domes of Buckminster, hence its nickname of Buckyballs.