Propene

Occurrence in nature

Propene is detected in the interstellar medium through microwave spectroscopy. On September 30, 2013, NASA announced the detection of small amounts of naturally occurring propene in the atmosphere of Titan using infrared spectroscopy. The detection was made by a team led by NASA GSFC scientist Conor Nixon using data from the CIRS instrument on the Cassini orbiter spacecraft, part of the Cassini-Huygens mission. Its confirmation solved a 32-year old mystery by filling a predicted gap in Titan's detected hydrocarbons, adding the C₃H₆ species (propene) to the already-detected C₃H₄ (propyne) and C₃H₈ (propane).