The candle's flickering flame vaporises wax molecules containing carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Some of these molecules burn instantly in the blue heart of the flame. Others move upwards into the yellow tip where the temperature is great enough to split them apart. The result is carbon-rich soot particles that glow, giving off gentle yellow light. Amid this soot are buckyballs.
Buckyballs also exist in interstellar dust and in geological formations on Earth.
So while they are new to science they are reasonably common in nature. Chemical and physical properties of buckyballs Buckyballs and other fullerenes intrigue scientists because of their chemistry and their unusual hollow, cage-like shape. Buckyballs are extremely stable and can withstand very high temperatures and pressures. The carbon atoms of buckyballs can react with other atoms and molecules, leaving the stable, spherical structure intact. Researchers are interested in creating new molecules by adding other molecules to the outside of a buckyball and also in the possibility of trapping smaller molecules inside a buckyball.