  Superatomic molecular orbitals (SAMO) in C60 are ideal building blocks for
functional nanostructures. However, imaging them spatially in the gas phase has
been unsuccessful. It is found experimentally that if C60 is excited by an
800-nm laser, the photoelectron casts an anisotropic velocity image, but the
image becomes isotropic if excited at a 400-nm wavelength. This diffuse image
difference has been attributed to electron thermal ionization, but more recent
experiments (800 nm) reveal a clear non-diffuse image superimposed on the
diffuse image, whose origin remains a mystery. Here we show that the
non-diffuse anisotropic image is the precursor of the $f$ SAMO. We predict that
four 800-nm photons can directly access the $1f$ SAMO, and with one more
photon, can image the orbital, with the photoelectron angular distribution
having two maxima at 0$^\circ$ and 180$^\circ$ and two humps separated by
56.5$^\circ$. Since two 400-nm photons only resonantly excite the spherical
$1s$ SAMO and four 800-nm photon excite the anisotropic $1f$ SAMO, our finding
gives a natural explanation of the non-diffuse image difference, complementing
the thermal scenario.
