are a family of carbon allotropes, molecules composed entirely of
carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, tube, or plane.
Spherical fullerenes are also called buckyballs.
Buckminsterfullerene which contains 60 carbon atoms resembles a soccer ball of the type made of twenty hexagons and twelve
pentagons, with a carbon atom at the vertices of each polygon and a
bond along each polygon edge. It is also the most common in terms of natural occurrence, as it can often be found in soot.
This animation shows a buckyball spinning on its axis.