  We have investigated the physical and chemical status of the pre-protostellar
core B68. A previous extinction study suggested that the density profile of B68
is remarkably consistent with a Bonnor-Ebert sphere with 2.1 $M_{\odot}$ at 16
K. We mapped B68 in C3H2, CCS, and NH3 with the Deep Space Network (DSN) 70m
telescope at Goldstone. Our results show that the B68 chemical structure is
consistent with that seen in other pre-protostellar cores (L1498, L1544) and is
explained by time dependent chemical models that include depletion. We measured
a kinetic temperature of 11K with NH3 (1,1) and (2,2) spectra. We also show
that B68 is thermally dominated with little contribution from turbulence
support (< 10%). We consider a modified Bonnor-Ebert sphere to include effects
of turbulence and magnetic fields and use it to constrain the uncertainties in
its distance determination. We conclude that the distance to B68 is $\sim$ 95pc
with a corresponding mass of $\sim$ 1.0 $M_{\odot}$. If some magnetic field is
present it can be further away (beyond $\sim$ 100pc) and still satisfy the
density structure of a Bonnor-Ebert sphere. Our observations do not preclude
any instability such as the onset of collapse, or slow contraction, occurring
in the center of the core, which cannot be resolved with our beam size (45").
