On Saturn's largest moon, water and oil would mix — opening the door to exotic chemistry in our solar system

On the left, a telescope image of Titan. On the right, a recreation of what its surface may look like.

The frigid conditions on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, allow simple molecules in its atmosphere to break one of the most fundamental rules in chemistry, a new study shows.

According to this principle, known as "like dissolves like," mixtures containing both polar and nonpolar components, such as oil and water, usually don't mix and instead form separate layers.