The lesser known fullerene C₇₀ was initially detected in the same observations as C₆₀ buckyball by Cami and co-workers in 2010 using the Spitzer Space Telescope. C₇₀ has proven to be more elusive than C₆₀, which was found in various other sources in additional observations by Cami et al. while C₇₀ went undetected. C₇₀ was detected toward the Magellanic clouds by García-Hernández in 2011. Both C₆₀ and C₇₀ had previous been detected in the Allende meteorite by Becker and co-workers. The detections of fullerenes are based on vibrational features observed in the IR. Data is also available for the C+
70 and C–
70 ions measured by Kern and co-workers and for protonated C₇₀ measured by Palotás and co-workers.

C₇₀ fullerene was not isolated and identified in a terrestrial lab until the work of Kroto and co-workers published in 1985.