Scientists have discovered an unexpected chemical phenomenon on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan: Frozen hydrogen cyanide crystals can mix with liquid methane and ethane, defying the classic law of chemistry: “like takes like.”
A joint study by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Sweden’s Talmers University of Technology has shown that at minus 179°C, these materials form a new, stable structure called a “cocrystal,” which was previously thought impossible.
NASA’s Dragonfly rover will fly to Titan in 2034 to study the moon’s surface and collect hydrogen cyanide samples to confirm the discovery and understand the possible chemistry of the early formation of life.
