Tupperware in space? Plastic found on a Saturn moon

Tupperware in space? Plastic found on a Saturn moon

Mangalore Today News Networkm

It’s hard enough finding food containers in your cupboard when you need them - but now there’s a plastic ingredient lying up in space

Scientists have found traces of propylene, the chemical used to make Tupperware, floating in the thick orange atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan.

It is the first time the ingredient has been found on another planet.

Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft discovered the traces using its infrared spectrometer, which feels heat radiation.

Propylene is a three-carbon gas like propane and propyne.

More than 30 years ago, both propane and propyne were found in the planet’s atmosphere, but not propylene, so Nasa is over the moon with the discovery.

The next step for the space organisation is to find out how much of the ingredient is present and where the concentrations are the highest.

Titan is an icy world and the only moon in the solar system which has clouds. It has weather like on Earth but it rains liquid methane, filling lakes and rivers.

The mission is a co-operative project of Nasa, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency managed by Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Courtesy: Mirror News