The Secret Life of Water

First posted on 06-18-2010

There was a time when science seemed simpler. In grade school, we were taught that water existed in three forms - solid, gas and liquid - and each was achieved depending on how low or how high the temperature. But for many years now, scientists have known that water actually exists in 15 phases. And that was before things got weird.

Researchers at the University of Utah have confirmed that water coexists in both ice and liquid forms at extremely low temperatures. By low, the researchers mean 180 Kelvin, way off the charts on the Fahrenheit scale. This temperature range is referred to as the “no-man’s land” of water, where a blurring of two water phases takes place, and it is typical of the kind of extreme cold in earth’s upper atmosphere.

“This blurring is what’s interesting,” says Valeria Molinero, who led the research. “Our findings show that what goes on there is important to the behavior of water and to the formation of clouds.”

Molinero, working with graduate student Emily Moore, discovered that at 180 Kelvin, it was difficult to follow the crystallization process. So, the team put together computer simulations to assist them.

The temperature range that Molinero and Moore targeted in their research is critical because it is representative of the atmospheric conditions where supercooled water affects cloud formation. Their work may lead to a better understanding of weather systems as well as how clouds regulate global radiation.

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