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Carbon Nanotubes
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NASA astronomers have discovered bucket loads of buckyballs in space in 2012. They used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to find the little carbon spheres throughout our Milky Way galaxy -- in the space between stars and around three dying stars. What's more, Spitzer detected buckyballs around a fourth dying star in a nearby galaxy in staggering quantities -- the equivalent in mass to about 15 of our moons.
Buckyballs, also known as fullerenes, are soccer-ball-shaped molecules consisting of 60 linked carbon atoms. The miniature spheres were first discovered in a lab on Earth 25 years ago, but it wasn't until this past July that Spitzer was able to provide the first confirmed proof of their existence in space. According to astronomer Letizia Stanghellini, "It’s possible that buckyballs from outer space provided seeds for life on Earth."[citeration 65]
The cousins of buckballs, carbon nanotubes, are even more amazing. Carbon nanotubes are stronger than steel, unbreakably elastic, resistant to chemicals and high temperature, a better conductor of electricity than silver, and a better heat conductor than diamond. They could be the solution to some of the world's biggest problems..[citation66]
Contact Info:
Student: Audrey Cheng
Teacher: Mrs. Zizmor
Henry M. Gunn High School
780 Arastradero Rd,
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Website: http://gunn.pausd.org/.
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