alkene
AL-keen
Definition
A type of hydrocarbon molecule containing at least one carbon-to-carbon double bond, which serves as a building block in complex chemical networks.
Etymology
Derived from the earlier chemical term 'alkene' by substituting the suffix '-ene' (denoting a double bond) into the root 'alk-' from 'alkane' (the corresponding saturated hydrocarbon). The term reflects the nomenclature systems developed by 19th-century organic chemists to classify carbon compounds based on their bonding.
In the news
The word is used to categorize specific organic fragments identified in Enceladus's ice grains, representing one of the chemical families that contribute to the moon's complex organic inventory.
Enceladus sprays water, phosphates, molecular hydrogen and complex organics straight out of its buried ocean — and a 2025 analysis found previously unseen organic compounds in freshly ejected ice, adding still more steps to the chemical pathways that c
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