A discovery on Saturn’s moon Titan challenged what scientists thought was a fundamental law of chemistry.
There, in extreme cold, some so-called fundamentally incompatible molecules can combine to form solids never seen before in the solar system, new research shows.
This alien, according to a team led by chemist Fernando Izquierdo-Rook of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, may have been more abundant on Titan.
“This is a very interesting thing that can help us understand something on a much larger scale, the moon [Titan] It’s as big as the planet Mercury,” said chemist Martin Rahm of Chalmers University of Technology.
Related: Titan could have an alien biosphere – but it might be the size of a dog
Titan is a fascinating little corner of the solar system. Its reservoirs of methane and hydrocarbons contain complex chemicals closely related to the prebiotic chemistry necessary for life. That doesn’t mean life can happen there, but it does bring an opportunity to understand the conditions under which life can arise.
A keystone of PreBiotic Chemistry is hydrogen cyanide, which, under the right conditions, forms compounds that can be the building blocks of life, such as nucleobases and amino acids. Hydrogen Cyanide is abundant on Titan.
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And it’s a very strong molecule, having an uneven distribution of electrons that gives it a soft charge.
As a rule, polar and non-polar molecules – such as methane and tilt on Titan – tend to decrease. It takes more force to force them together than it does to separate them. This is a direct method that prevents water (polar) from mixing with oil (nonpolar).
The investigation of the investigators about the possible behavior of Hydrogen Cyanide on Titan started scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to try to find out what happens behind the atmosphere of titan.
They conducted the experiments at temperatures of about -180 degrees Celsius (-292 Fahrenheit), which corresponds to the temperature on the surface of Titan. At this extreme temperature, hydrogen cyanide is a crystal, while methane softens in liquid form.
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After the test was run and they analyzed the resulting mixtures, NASA researchers were able to tell that something had changed, but there is no certainty that, so they also hired chemicals from Chalmers.
“This has led to an exciting and exciting collaboration and exploration between Chalmers and NASA,” Rahm said. “The question we asked them was a little crazy: Can the measurements be explained by the crystal structure when methane or ethane is mixed with hydrogen cyanide?
The experimental setup was the same: The chamber is arranged at a temperature of around -180 degrees Celsius, where the researchers grow hydrogen cyanide crystals. In this area, they introduced methane, ethane, propane, and butane, using Raman Spectroscopy to record how the molecules behave.
They recorded small, but distinct, shifts in the Oscillations of the hydrogen cyanide after exposure to methane and moisture – indicating that these incompatible substances were not just moving next to each other, but interacting with each other.
The indications of these changes suggested that the hydrogen bonds in hydrogen cyanide were effectively strengthened, bent and stretched by methane and softening.
Next, the team turned to computer models to confirm their suspicions: Methane and ethane once entered between the gaps in the Hydrogen Cyanide Crystal Lattal Lattal, which combines to form structures known as temperatures like them.
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Under conditions like Titan, the researchers concluded, the molecules don’t work as well as they do at high temperatures, allowing hydrocyanide, indicating that the molecules they usually find can come together and combine.
“The discovery of an unexpected connection between these objects could affect our understanding of Titan’s geology and its complex landscape of lakes, oceans and sand dunes,” said Rafm.
We may have to wait a few years before the importance of this unmixed chemistry can be confirmed, unfortunately, with the dragonfly unexpectedly expected to make the world of saturn unattractive until 2034.
“Until then, these structures represent a humbling reminder of just how powerful chemical reactions can be,” the researchers wrote.
In future work, the researchers hope to find out what other non-metals would play well with hydrogen cyanide if the conditions are right.
The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
