Scientists Find Water And Oil Mixing On Saturn's Moon During Simulation, Defying Rules Of Chemistry

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has defied one of the most fundamental rules of chemistry, a new study has found. In a surprising discovery, the scientists from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and NASA found that substances that normally cannot mix are able to combine in Titan's intensely cold environment, like oil and water.

"These are very exciting findings that can help us understand something on a very large scale, a moon as big as the planet Mercury," Martin Rahm, Associate Professor at Chalmers' Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, who also led the study, said as quoted by Science Daily.

The study published in PNAS revealed that polar and nonpolar molecules typically don't mix on Earth because of the principle of "like dissolves like."

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Polar molecules, such as water, have an uneven distribution of charge, while nonpolar molecules, like oil, have a balanced charge. This difference causes them to repel each other and form distinct layers. However, the conditions on Titan's surface are far from Earth's, with temperatures plummeting to -183 degrees C.

"The discovery of the unexpected interaction between these substances could affect how we understand the Titan's geology and its strange landscapes of lakes, seas and sand dunes," said Rahm.

"In addition, hydrogen cyanide is likely to play an important role in the abiotic creation of several of life's building blocks, for example amino acids, which are used for the construction of proteins, and nucleobases, which are needed for the genetic code. So our work also contributes insights into chemistry before the emergence of life, and how it might proceed in extreme, inhospitable environments."

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For the study, researchers simulated Titan's atmosphere and surface conditions in laboratory experiments, using spectroscopic analysis to study the molecular structure at low temperatures.

They found that hydrogen cyanide and hydrocarbons (methane and ethane), which are polar and nonpolar molecules, respectively, can co-crystallise in solid forms.

This unexpected behaviour occurs because intermolecular forces within the hydrogen cyanide crystals strengthen, allowing nonpolar molecules to sneak into the crystal structure.

"This led to an exciting theoretical and experimental collaboration between Chalmers and NASA. The question we asked ourselves was a bit crazy: Can the measurements be explained by a crystal structure in which methane or ethane is mixed with hydrogen cyanide? This contradicts a rule in chemistry, 'like dissolves like', which basically means that it should not be possible to combine these polar and nonpolar substances," said Rahm.