On a Saturn moon, chemicals can do things they can't on Earth

Some substances that don't mix on Earth can combine in ultra freezing conditions like those on Saturn's largest moon , breaking one of the best-known rules of chemistry, new research shows.

Titan , a hazy orange world about 880 million miles away in space , shares similarities with early Earth and is the only other place in the solar system with a thick atmosphere, as well as lakes and dunes on its surface. A key reason scientists study the moon is to try to figure out how the first chemical steps toward creating life may have unfolded on our own planet.

Now a team of researchers from NASA and Chalmers University in Sweden has found that on Titan, the cold environment allows molecules to combine in ways scientists hadn't thought were possible. Its main chemicals — metha