Scientists create ice that neither floats nor sinks, could be a clue to life beyond Earth

In a major discovery, scientists at the University College London and the University of Cambridge have invented a new type of ice that does not float or sink and resembles a liquid rather than frozen water.

The results of the research that has been published in the journal Science can be a milestone as it holds clues to life beyond Earth by offering an insight into the processes that shape the oceans of Saturn and Jupiter's moons, reported Daily Mail citing the research report.

But the researchers have also claimed that ordinary ice could undergo shear forces in the ice moons of the outer solar system because of the tidal forces exerted by other planets, which provide conditions that come close to replicating those used by scientists during the research.

Researchers discover a new type of ice that doesn't float or sink

Since the newly discovered ice is in its ordinary crystalline form, the molecules of the new ice are not clearly organised as it is amorphous. The researchers used a process called "ball mining" to carry out this research, which involves shaking ordinary ice together with steel balls in a jar at 200 degrees Celsius. The result of the research was a novel amorphous form of ice that showed density as liquid water and resembled water in solid form. The scientists named it medium-density amorphous ice (MDA).

"Water is the foundation of all life," said senior author Professor Christoph Salzmann, from University College London, as reported by Dailymail.com. "We know of 20 crystalline forms of ice, but only two main types of amorphous ice have previously been discovered, known as high-density and low-density amorphous ices," he added.

Salzmann explained that "there is a huge density gap between them, and the accepted wisdom has been that no ice exists within that density gap. That's because the density of liquid water lies in the middle, and therefore scientists thought it impossible for ice to form at that density." The co-author, Professor Andrea Sella, of UCL, explained, "We have shown it is possible to create what looks like a stop-motion kind of water. This is an unexpected and quite amazing finding."

"Our study shows the density of MDA is precisely within this density gap. This finding may have far-reaching consequences for our understanding of liquid water and its many anomalies," Sella said.

"Amorphous ice in general is said to be the most abundant form of water in the universe. "The race is now on to understand how much of it is MDA and how geophysically active MDA is," said the lead author from Cambridge's Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, Professor Angelos Michaelides.

Image: Unsplash/Representative