Astrônomos utilizando dados do Telescópio Espacial Spitzer conseguiram, pela primeira vez, descobrir buckybolas em estado sólido no espaço. Antes dessa descoberta, as microscópicas esferas de carbono haviam sido encontradas apenas em estado gasoso no cosmos.
Formalmente denominadas buckministerfullereno, as buckybolas têm esse nome por sua semelhança com os domos geodésicos do finado arquiteto Buckminster Fuller. Elas são compostas por até 60 átomos de carbono dispostos em uma esfera oca, lcomo uma bola de futebol. Sua estrutura incomum as torna candidatos ideais para aplicações nos campos elétrico e químico na Terra, inclusive materiais supercondutores, medicamentos, purificação de água e blindagem.
Na descoberta mais recente, cientistas utilizando o Telescópio Spitzer detectaram minúsculos grãos de matéria, ou partículas, consistindo de bucky bolas empilhadas. Eles encontraram as partículas ao redor de um par de estrelas chamadas "XX Ophiuchi," a 6.500 anos-luz da Terra, e detectaram quantidades suficientes para preencher um volume equivalente ao de 10.000 Montes Everest.
Essas buckybolas são empilhadas juntas para formar sólidos, com laranjas em um engradado. As partículas detectadas são minúsculas, muito menores que o diâmetro de um fio de cabelo, mas cada uma delas contém pilhas com milhões de buckybolas.
As buckybolas foram detectadas no espaço pela primeira ver com o Telescópio Spitzer, em 2010. O Spitzer depois identificou as moléculas em ambientes cósmicos diferentes. Ele chegou a encontrá-las em grandes quantidades, o equivalente em massa a 15 Luas da Terra, em uma galáxia próxima chamada a Pequena Nuvem de Magalhães.
Em todos esses casos, as moléculas encontravam-se em estado gasoso. A descoberta recente de partículas de buckybolas significa que grandes quantidades dessas moléculas devem estar presentes em alguns ambientes estelares, para ligar e formar partículas sólidas. A equipe de pesquisadores conseguiu identificar a forma sólida das buckybolas com dados do Spitzer porque elas emitem luz de maneira singular, diferente da emitida pela forma gasosa.
Estes resultados emocionantes sugerem que as buckybolas estão ainda mais espalhadas pelo espaço do que os resultados anteriores do Spitzer indicavam, disse Mi ke Werner, cientista do projeto Spitzer no Laboratório de Propulsão a Jato da NASA, em Pasadena, Califórnia. "Elas podem representar uma importante forma de carbono, um elemento essesncial constituinte da vida, em todo o cosmos."
As buckybolas têm sido encontradas na Terra em várias formas. Elas se formam como um gás que sai de velas queimando e existem na forma sólida em alguns tipo de rocha, como o mineral Xungita encontrado na Rússia, e fulgurita, uma rocha vítrea do Colorado (EUA) que se forma quando raios atingem o solo. Em tubos de ensaio, os sólidos adquirem a forma de uma "gosma" marrom escura.
Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have, for
the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space. Prior to
this discovery, the microscopic carbon spheres had been found only in
gas form in the cosmos.
Formally named buckministerfullerene, buckyballs are named after their resemblance to the late architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes. They are made up of 60 carbon atoms arranged into a hollow sphere, like a soccer ball. Their unusual structure makes them ideal candidates for electrical and chemical applications on Earth, including superconducting materials, medicines, water purification and armor.
In the latest discovery, scientists using Spitzer detected tiny specks of matter, or particles, consisting of stacked buckyballs. They found the particles around a pair of stars called "XX Ophiuchi," 6,500 light-years from Earth, and detected enough to fill the equivalent in volume to 10,000 Mount Everests.
"These buckyballs are stacked together to form a solid, like oranges in a crate," said Nye Evans of Keele University in England, lead author of a paper appearing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. "The particles we detected are minuscule, far smaller than the width of a hair, but each one would contain stacks of millions of buckyballs."
Buckyballs were detected definitively in space for the first time by Spitzer in 2010. Spitzer later identified the molecules in a host of different cosmic environments. It even found them in staggering quantities, the equivalent in mass to 15 Earth moons, in a nearby galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud.
In all of those cases, the molecules were in the form of gas. The recent discovery of buckyballs particles means that large quantities of these molecules must be present in some stellar environments in order to link up and form solid particles. The research team was able to identify the solid form of buckyballs in the Spitzer data because they emit light in a unique way that differs from the gaseous form.
"This exciting result suggests that buckyballs are even more widespread in space than the earlier Spitzer results showed," said Mike Werner, project scientist for Spitzer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "They may be an important form of carbon, an essential building block for life, throughout the cosmos."
Buckyballs have been found on Earth in various forms. They form as a gas from burning candles and exist as solids in certain types of rock, such as the mineral shungite found in Russia, and fulgurite, a glassy rock from Colorado that forms when lightning strikes the ground. In a test tube, the solids take on the form of dark, brown "goo."
Formally named buckministerfullerene, buckyballs are named after their resemblance to the late architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes. They are made up of 60 carbon atoms arranged into a hollow sphere, like a soccer ball. Their unusual structure makes them ideal candidates for electrical and chemical applications on Earth, including superconducting materials, medicines, water purification and armor.
In the latest discovery, scientists using Spitzer detected tiny specks of matter, or particles, consisting of stacked buckyballs. They found the particles around a pair of stars called "XX Ophiuchi," 6,500 light-years from Earth, and detected enough to fill the equivalent in volume to 10,000 Mount Everests.
"These buckyballs are stacked together to form a solid, like oranges in a crate," said Nye Evans of Keele University in England, lead author of a paper appearing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. "The particles we detected are minuscule, far smaller than the width of a hair, but each one would contain stacks of millions of buckyballs."
Buckyballs were detected definitively in space for the first time by Spitzer in 2010. Spitzer later identified the molecules in a host of different cosmic environments. It even found them in staggering quantities, the equivalent in mass to 15 Earth moons, in a nearby galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud.
In all of those cases, the molecules were in the form of gas. The recent discovery of buckyballs particles means that large quantities of these molecules must be present in some stellar environments in order to link up and form solid particles. The research team was able to identify the solid form of buckyballs in the Spitzer data because they emit light in a unique way that differs from the gaseous form.
"This exciting result suggests that buckyballs are even more widespread in space than the earlier Spitzer results showed," said Mike Werner, project scientist for Spitzer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "They may be an important form of carbon, an essential building block for life, throughout the cosmos."
Buckyballs have been found on Earth in various forms. They form as a gas from burning candles and exist as solids in certain types of rock, such as the mineral shungite found in Russia, and fulgurite, a glassy rock from Colorado that forms when lightning strikes the ground. In a test tube, the solids take on the form of dark, brown "goo."
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