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Cassini Probe Sees Plastic Ingredient On Titan Moon

Posted by timothy on from the windblown-grocery-bags dept.

Ron024 writes "The Cassini probe has detected propene, or propylene, on Saturn's moon Titan. It is the first definitive detection of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet, other than our home world, says the U.S. space agency (NASA). The discovery, made by Cassini's infrared spectrometer, is reported in Astrophysical Journal Letters [abstract]."

2 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Not this again... by ModernGeek · · Score: 4, Informative

    Doesn't anyone remember the last time we found plastic on another planet?

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    1. Re:Not this again... by Hatta · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not that implausible in the case of Titan. The moon is covered with hydrocarbons, it would be more suprising if none of those hydrocarbons were unsaturated. And that's all we're really talking about, individual propane monomers that have had a couple hydrogens knocked off. They're not even claiming to have found polypropylene.

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