Astrochemistry Archives

This is an artist's concept depicting the presence of buckyballs in space. Buckyballs, which consist of 60 carbon atoms arranged like soccer balls, have been detected in space before by scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The new result is the first time an electrically charged (ionized) version has been found in the interstellar medium. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Impact events, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release

Researchers Discover Extraterrestrial Gases in Buckyballs

by Keith CowingMarch 20, 2000June 13, 2024

Extraterrestrial gases, including helium, are trapped in “buckyball” molecules in a layer of sedimentary clay found in many places on Earth, according to a paper to be published March 28, […]

ALH84001 was found in 1984 in Allan Hills ice field, Antarctica -- NASA

Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Mars, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release

Meteorite Yields Evidence of Primitive Life on Early Mars

by Keith CowingAugust 7, 1996November 23, 2023

A NASA research team of scientists at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, TX, and at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, has found evidence that strongly suggests primitive life may […]