Whenever we speak of plastics there is the addendum of it being man made. Most science projects that involve making materials out of different kinds of plastics use artificial processes, so it is interesting to note that natural plastic does exist in space.

The Cassini space craft which NASA is using to study Titan, one of the planet Saturn’s moons, has discovered propylene in the lower atmosphere. Propylene is a chemical which is found on Earth in food grade storage containers, car bumpers and other cosmetic products. However on Earth it is mostly a man made plastic molecule.

The space craft’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer or CIRS was used to measure the infrared light, akin to heat radiation, emitted from Saturn and its moons. CIRS used the thermal fingerprints of different chemicals to isolate and identify the composition of the lower atmosphere. Propylene is the first molecule that was discovered on Titan using this process.

Earlier Voyager had detected hydrocarbons on Titan in a flypast. Researchers hope to find out even more about Titan using both space based and on ground instruments. The study of Titan is an ongoing science project which should reveal a lot more as time goes by.