Proof that a rare form of carbon could be drifting in the vast spaces between the stars has been found by a team of scientists from the University of Hawaii.

It is a discovery that may have implications for the origin of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the Universe.

"It's not every day that you discover a new carbon molecule in nature; that's what makes this interesting," Dr Luann Becker says.

Fullerines: carbon atoms in a sphere

Fullerenes are football shaped molecules of 60 or more carbon atoms. They have many interesting properties and may eventually find industrial applications.

Their discovery in 1985 as only the third form of pure carbon (along with diamonds and graphite) earned its discoverers the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Since then scientists have speculated that fullerenes also exist naturally in the Universe

Dr Becker has already discovered the presence of fullerenes in deposits at the site of the Sudbury meteor impact crater in Canada. She could not be sure however that the fullerenes came from outer space or were made on Earth by the impact.

Crushed rock

Scientists are able to detect naturally occurring fullerenes by exploiting a unique property they posses. Unlike their other pure-carbon relations fullerenes dissolve in a particular solvent.

Dr Becker crushed a piece of the Allende meteorite which fell into Mexico in 1969, treated it with acids and used the organic solvent to extract fullerenes from the residue.

Researchers speculate that, because because the football-shaped molecule can trap other atoms inside it, they may have carried gases from elsewhere in the cosmos and deposited them into the Earth's original atmosphere billions of years ago.

Some of these molecules may have played a role in the origin of life.