For the first time, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found a key ingredient on Saturn's moon that's used to make plastic products like car bumpers and food storage containers.
"This chemical is all around us in everyday life, strung together in long chains to form a plastic called polypropylene," Conor Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center told Computer World magazine. "That plastic container at the grocery store with the recycling code five on the bottom that's polypropylene."
The chemical called propylene was found in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. Other than earth, the chemical has never been discovered on any moon or planet Computer World reported.
"This measurement was very difficult to make because propylene's weak signature is crowded by related chemicals with much stronger signals," Michael Flasar, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and chief investigator for the chemical inspection and regulation service told Computer World. "This success boosts our confidence that we will find still more chemicals long hidden in Titan's atmosphere."
The spacecraft's discovery answers questions scientists had about how Titan's atmosphere is structured. Better yet, they now have more confidence that there are more chemicals out there to be found.
A small portion of propylene was found in Titan's lower atmosphere by one of the spacecraft's composite infrared spectrometers (CIRS). The tool measures the infrared light, or heat radiation which Saturn and its moons give off. The device can also determine particular gases like propylene because of its thermal markers. These are similar to human fingerprints.
Titan's atmosphere is thick, and has clouds, a rain cycle, and giant lakes. The moon is different than the atmosphere on earth however because its clouds, rain, and lakes consist of liquid hydrocarbons methane, and ethane.
