Plastic ingredient found on Saturn's moon

au.news.yahoo.com...

Pah! I don't get on with this new ATS, I hope the link above works?



You expect to find plastics in your lunch box, not on a moon of Saturn.

But that's exactly where NASA found an ingredient of plastic - the first time the chemical has been detected on another world.

The Cassini spacecraft found small amounts of propylene, a chemical used to make storage containers and other products, in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon Titan.

Titan is among the few bodies in the solar system with a significant atmosphere made up of hydrocarbons.

Cassini previously detected signs that propylene might be present in Titan's hazy atmosphere.

But scientists weren't convinced until one of the spacecraft's instruments measured the heat coming from Saturn and its moons, and identified the chemical.

The finding appears on Monday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

You expect to find plastics in your lunch box, not on a moon of Saturn.

Propolyne is not plastic, it's an organic compound. Which means it contains carbon, among other things.

Also know as Propene, it is also used to make acetone. Acetone is used to make meth so maybe there's a colony of speed freaks on Titan.

reply to post by CaptainBeno


Link works fine

GREAT Thread also

reply to post by Phage


Thanks! I did not know that.

Hmmm, perhaps the next series of Breaking Bad to be filmed there?

Anyway, cheers!

reply to post by Phage


Acetone is also used in nail polish remover. A colony of tweekers with OCD and nail painting issues?

reply to post by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf


Or.............just a planet full of chics. Awesome!

(Yes yes I know, it's impossible, but it would be good huh?? huh?)

reply to post by CaptainBeno


Having an INGREDIENT used to create plastic is a long ways away from having plastic.

Plastic is a man made invention.. and every man made invention is derived from ingredients found in nature at it's core. We just manipulate what we find in nature to create new things.

With that said.. not a shock, there's no doubt other natural 'ingredients' to be found on Mars for a wide range of products.. That's a good thing! Earth is obviously not the only place in this universe with natural resources that can be used used to create complex materials.

reply to post by Phage


Hoo Haa! Breaking Titan.

Soon to be at a Theater Near You.

Propene, also known as propylene or methylethylene, is an unsaturated organic compound having the chemical formula C3H6.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Phage


Then we know where we should build our new rehab...

I remember years ago Titan making the cover of an issue of an oil & gas magazine because of its suspected atmosphere. Just a quick note before people get confused..."organic" just means that there is a certain amount of carbon or above in the compound. It's not necessarily an indicator of life but Titan is a very interesting one.

I'd give some interesting links from NASA but alas...notice.usa.gov...

reply to post by CaptainBeno


This must mean that at one time there was life there.
The oil companies tell us these hydro-carbons are "fossil fuels", made from the decaying dead dinosaurs.
That means they must have been alive at one time.

You see there is life on other planets!

What more proof do you need???

Wait! ... Wait!
Does Haloburton know about this?
I guess we will now have to invade Titan,

reply to post by teamcommander

Rumsford is already there. He was, and always will be.
He traversed the chronosynclastic infindiblium and came unstuck in time.
en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by teamcommander


Actually, when I took Geology, we were corrected on the whole dinosaur thing. Pockets of hydrocarbons underground were believed to be mostly due to ancient submerged swamps, not dinos. If a dino got stuck in one and died, then they'd be a part of the hydrocarbons.

Something along those lines.

reply to post by Phage


And that's a story I want to hear about?

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Actually, I have always thought it odd that the dinosaur fossils we find have been in rock either at ground level, from erosion, or in areas which have been lifted because of techtonic movements. All the oil has been found at depths in thousands of feet and natural gas even deeper.
Don't liquids and gasses rise?
I have also read where some of the depleated wells in Texas and Oklahoma have "refilled" over time. Where did this oil come from?

reply to post by Phage


Thanks for the link.
I have not read this book. Loved "Slaughterhose Five" and have wondered if there was more to the story about
Tralfamadore.
If they would only learn to stop that stupid technician.

reply to post by teamcommander


No, not everything rises. Even something as comparably light as water, although a small amount may burble upward, the bulk still tends to stay within the deep underground reservoir (aquifer). Oil is much more viscous than water so that should explain why water may burble up but crude is less likely to.

Dry oil wells having more oil is probably a two part thing. I was associated with a smaller oil company just a few years ago that was deliberately acquiring old dried up wells from the major oil companies for the purpose of re-opening them. They weren't really "dry". A lot of these oil wells dried up as in the oil within them was unattainable by current technologies at the time. Oil extraction has improved to such an extent where extracting from shale deposits (fracking) is possible. These tech changes has basically made it so that what remains in the oil deposit can now be extracted. It's just kind of humorous that that major oil companies would still prefer to sell their old dry wells in lieu of extracting it themselves.

I also recall reading an article in an oil and gas mag a couple decades ago about the potential discovery of an oil producing bacteria. This may also have a hand in it and they are definitely using bacteria to replenish old wells. Again, though, the major oil companies are seeking out the new and easier to obtain deposits than looking at their old wells. Apparently, a deep water rig and risking another Macondo type leak is more cost effective as the number one upstream activity is hunting for wells in the oceans. just a few years ago, the majors were divesting their downstream (refining/retail) activities in favor of oceanic oil exploration and extraction.

teamcommander
reply to post by WhiteAlice

 

Actually, I have always thought it odd that the dinosaur fossils we find have been in rock either at ground level, from erosion, or in areas which have been lifted because of techtonic movements. All the oil has been found at depths in thousands of feet and natural gas even deeper.
Don't liquids and gasses rise?
I have also read where some of the depleated wells in Texas and Oklahoma have "refilled" over time. Where did this oil come from?

There are some locations on Earth where oil and natural gas escape to the surface. Petroleum in its various forms has been used since ancient times. en.wikipedia.org...

But I agree that the oil we extract has little to do with dinosaurs, and more to do with the vast forests and swamps that covered the Earth.

reply to post by wildespace


Yep yep such as these places:


La Brea Tar Pits

Athabasca Oil Sands (aka Alberta Oil Sands)

And in the ocean, natural oil seeps

Just more likely to have a freshwater spring burble up than an oil seep.