Water ice is everywhere in space, from frozen moons to frosty dust grains in interstellar clouds. However, researchers at University College London (UCL) and the University of Cambridge have recently discovered that ice in space isn't like what we thought it was.
On Earth, the relatively warm temperatures in which ice exists gives the water molecules enough energy to form an ordered, crystalline structure akin to the symmetry of snowflakes. However, in space, temperatures plunge much lower, down to –148 or –328 degrees Fahrenheit (–100 or –200 Celsius) and colder, and it wasn't thought that water-ice could crystallize under such conditions. Instead, water ice in space was thought to be purely amorphous; in other words, no crystallization and no ordered structure between molecules.
