Without contest , the best name in chemistry is Buckminsterfullerene . These are complex - C molecules shaped like a soccer egg and for this reason , are also known as " buckyball " . These molecules have been unexpectedlydiscovered in spaceand astronomers have finally work out how they might form in the nebulae around dying wizard .
As reported inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters , the squad tried to recreate conditions found in circumstellar outer space . They used an instrumental role called the transmittal negatron microscope ( TEM ) that can simulate wandering nebulae conditions well and bet at what happened to a common character of stardust found there .
This stardust is made mostly of atomic number 14 carbide . The investigator placed the silicon carbide molecules in the TEM and then hit them with shockwaves , high - energy particles , and high temperatures . They get wind that eventually the Si is pushed by , pass on many carbon particle interacting among themselves .
While these atoms are in these uttermost H cloud , they can arrange themselves into complex patterns . Buckminsterfullerene molecules are very uncompromising and very stable even in eminent - radioactivity environments . They can endure the harsh conditions around a die star for a tenacious time until they eventually get by into interstellar space .
" The term in the universe where we would expect complex thing to be destroyed are actually the status that make them , " lead author Jacob Bernal , an space biology and interpersonal chemistry doctorial scholar at the University of Arizona ( UA ) , said in astatement .
The findings are quite exciting . buckminsterfullerene are found in soot but for the most part , they are created in the lab . The discovery of these corpuscle in place suggests the possibility for far more complex chemistry with many unlike implications for what we might notice next in the cosmos .
" If this mechanism is forming C60 , it ’s probably form all kinds of carbon nanostructures , " added co - author Lucy Ziurys , Regents Professor of astronomy , chemical science , and biochemistry at UA . " And if you say the chemical substance literature , these are all remember to be celluloid textile only made in the science lab , and yet , interstellar outer space seems to be making them naturally . "
Buckminsterfullerene ’s name comes from the architect Richard Buckminster Fuller renowned for his design of thegeodesic dome structureof which these molecules appear very like to . If you ’re curious , the second - best name in Chemistry is(Mg , Fe²⁺)₂(Mg , Fe²⁺)₅Si₈O₂₂(OH)₂(don’t vex the data link is SFW ) .
