Saturn's moon Titan defies chemistry rules: Stable crystals of polar, nonpolar
Scientists just found that on Saturn's moon Titan, molecules that usually don't mix—polar and nonpolar ones—can actually team up and form stable crystals in the freezing -183°C environment.
This flips the classic "like dissolves like" chemistry rule on its head.
Unlikely pairs of molecules were sticking together
Researchers saw hydrogen cyanide (a polar molecule) bonding with hydrocarbons (nonpolar molecules), which isn't supposed to happen naturally.
Using special spectroscopy tools, they confirmed these unlikely pairs were sticking together, challenging what we thought we knew about how molecules behave.
NASA's Dragonfly mission will check out Titan up close
This discovery hints that Titan might have the right conditions for some early building blocks of life to form.
NASA's Dragonfly mission, launching in 2028, will check out Titan up close to see if these wild chemical combos could mean something big for astrobiology.