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A unique molecule shaped like a soccer ball is helping scientists better understand how stars live and die in deep space.
Fifteen years after first detecting “buckyballs” beyond Earth, Western University astronomers have returned with a vivid new look at where these unusual molecules form. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, the team studied a distant cloud of gas and dust known as a planetary nebula called Tc 1, located more than 10,000 light-years away.
Planetary nebulae are created when stars like our sun reach the end of their lives and shed their outer layers into space. Inside Tc 1, researchers previously discovered buckminsterfullerene, a molecule made of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a hollow sphere, resembling a soccer ball.
That discovery, first made in 2010 using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, confirmed that these complex carbon molecules can form naturally in space.
New images and data from the James Webb telescope are revealing Tc 1 in unprecedented detail. The image shows glowing gas in different colours, with hotter regions appearing blue and cooler material in red. It also captures delicate filaments and shells, along with a mysterious structure near the centre that looks like an upside-down question mark.
“Tc 1 was already extraordinary, as it was the object that told us buckyballs exist in space, but this new image shows us we had only scratched the surface,” said Jan Cami, principal investigator of the new observing program. “The structures we’re seeing now are breathtaking, and they raise as many questions as they answer.”
The image of the buckyball was processed by London amateur astronomer and high school teacher Katelyn Beecroft. She was invited to be part of the research because of her skill in extracting subtle structures from the telescope data.
Scientists say the new data includes detailed chemical “fingerprints” that could help explain how these molecules form and why they shine so brightly, questions that have puzzled researchers for years.
