For the first time, a chemical essential for the creation of plastic on Earth has been found in a far-off part of the solar system: Saturn’s largest Titan.
The discovery, made by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting Saturn, found that the atmosphere of Titan contains propylene, a key ingredient of plastic containers, car bumpers and other everyday items on Earth. NASA scientists announced the discovery with a video describing the propylene find on Titan.
“This chemical is all around us in everyday life, strung together in long chains to form a plastic called polypropylene,” Conor Nixon, a NASA planetary scientist and lead author of a paper detailing the new research in today’s (Sept. 30) issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters said in a statement. “That plastic container at the grocery store with the recycling code 5 on the bottom — that’s polypropylene.” [Amazing Photos: Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon]
Scientists used Cassini’s composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) instrument, which measures infrared light given off by Saturn and its moon, made the discovery.
The new study helps piece together a long-standing mystery about Titan’s atmosphere. When Voyager 1 conducted the first close flyby of the moon in 1980, it recognized gasses in the moon’s brown atmosphere as hydrocarbons.
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