Electric Soccer Balls in Space: The Hunt for Fullerenes in the Diffuse Interstellar Medium

Martin Cordiner

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Physics Department, The Catholic University of America

Wed, November 20, 2019 - 4:00 PM
Karl Herzfeld Auditorium of Hannan Hall - Rm 108

The `soccer ball' molecule buckminsterfullerene (C60) was first identified by Kroto et al. (1985) during a series of experiments attempting to synthesize long carbon chain molecules in the laboratory. The unusual molecular properties of fullerenes, including their size, strength, electrical conductivity and stability make them uniquely attractive for a range of practical uses, including high-tech medical applications, aerospace and advanced sporting equipment. The icosahedral symmetry of C60 renders its molecular structure extremely stable, and Kroto realized that this stability would allow it to persist in harsh astrophysical environments, including the strongly-irradiated diffuse interstellar medium where less-stable molecules are easily destroyed.  This realization led to the suggestion of C60+ and, more specifically, its electrically charged counterpart (C60+), as possible carriers of (some of) the unidentified diffuse interstellar bands (ubiquitously observed absorption features in the spectra of stars residing behind interstellar clouds). In this talk, I will summarize our knowledge of cosmic fullerenes and present new results obtained using an unorthodox observing mode of the Hubble Space Telescope, producing unprecedented sensitivity in the near-infrared part of the spectrum, and confirming the presence of C60+ in the diffuse interstellar medium.

Refreshments served at 3:45 PM

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