What role did giant stars play in the experiments that led to the discovery of C60?

The discovery of $C_{60}$ was driven by efforts to understand the chemical conditions found in the atmospheres of carbon-rich red giant stars.

Sir Harold Kroto had previously used microwave spectroscopy to detect long, chainlike carbon molecules in interstellar gas clouds and the atmospheres of these stars. To test his hypothesis that these carbon chains originated in such stellar environments, he collaborated with Richard Smalley and Robert Curl at Rice University in 1985.

The team used Smalley’s laser-supersonic cluster beam apparatus to vaporize graphite, effectively simulating the high-energy chemistry of a giant star's atmosphere. During these experiments, they serendipitously discovered that a previously unknown carbon species containing 60 atoms formed spontaneously in high abundance. This finding led to the identification of the highly stable, spheroidal structure of $C_{60}$, which they named buckminsterfullerene in honor of the architect R. Buckminster Fuller.12