Photo via northparkcenter.com

Photo via northparkcenter.com

You may notice a large geometric structure next time you’re at NorthPark Center. Don’t worry. It’s not a UFO. It’s a 17-foot sculpture composed of anodized aluminum, electric hardware, LED lights and custom software.

Leo Villareal is the artist behind the installation. He named the piece Buckyball after the “momentous discovery of a new molecule [affectionately called buckyball] by a group of scientists at Rice University in 1985.”

View the sculpture in the mall’s CenterPark Garden, preferably in the evening — “the spheres are made of aluminum tubing with a total of 4,500 LED nodes, each capable of displaying 16 million distinct colors.”

Click here to learn more about Villarreal and the Buckyball.