Astronomers reveal spectacular birthplace of cosmic buckyballs

Fifteen years after Western astronomers first discovered "buckyballs" in space (soccer ball-shaped molecules that resemble a hollow sphere), they're back with stunning images and rich data generated using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)—the most powerful space telescope ever built. The team led by Jan Cami, a physics and astronomy professor, first detected buckyballs using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in 2010. The fantastic find came from the planetary nebula Tc 1, formed from a dying star more than 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Ara.