What can space ice teach scientists about finding life beyond Earth? This is what a recent study published in Physical Review B hopes to address as a team of researchers from the University College London (UCL) and University of Cambridge investigated the structure of low-density amorphous ice (LDA)—with amorphous meaning “shapeless”—which is one of the most common substances in the universe while its structure is still being debated. This study has the potential to help researchers better understand LDA and the implications it could have for better understanding its relationship with liquid water.
For the study, the researchers used computer models to simulate the growth patterns of LDA, the latter of which has been found to exist within comets, icy moons, and the dust and gas and comprise protoplanetary disks around young exoplanetary systems. Better understanding of LDA’s crystalline structure could provide greater insight into how water forms on other worlds, and specifically how this could lead to life as we know it. In the end, the researchers found that LDA’s crystalline structure was determined based on its source, indicating different structures could come from different sources, like comets or icy moons.
Image of low-density amorphous ice displaying tiny crystallites (white) are within the amorphous material (blue). (Credit: Michael B Davies, UCL and University of Cambridge)
“Ice on Earth is a cosmological curiosity due to our warm temperatures,” said Dr. Christoph Salzmann, who is a Professor of Physical and Materials Chemistry at UCL and a co-author on the study. “You can see its ordered nature in the symmetry of a snowflake. Ice in the rest of the Universe has long been considered a snapshot of liquid water – that is, a disordered arrangement fixed in place. Our findings show this is not entirely true. Our results also raise questions about amorphous materials in general. For instance, glass fibers that transport data long distances need to be amorphous, or disordered, for their function.”
While further research is needed, this study demonstrates that LDA could help scientists better understand the structure and function of liquid water, which is hypothesized to be a precursor for life as we know it, along with industrial applications.
What new discoveries about LDA will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Physical Review B, EurekAlert!