Scientists Create Ice That Neither Floats Nor Sinks, Could Be A Clue To Life Beyond Earth

But  researchers have also claimed that ordinary ice on icy moons in the  outer Solar System could experience shearing forces due to tidal forces exerted by other planets, creating conditions  close to  those used by scientists during the study.

Because the newly discovered ice is in its usual crystalline form, the molecules of the new ice are not neatly organized as it is amorphous. Steel balls in a glass at 200 degrees Celsius. 

The result of the investigation was a new amorphous ice form  that had a density like liquid water and resembled water in solid form. The scientists named it Medium-Density Amorphous Ice  (MDA)."Water is the basis of all life," said lead author Professor Christoph Salzmann of University College London, as reported by Dailymail.com. "We know of 20 crystalline forms of ice, but so far only two main types of amorphous ice, known as high-density and low-density amorphous ice, have been discovered," he added. 

Salzmann explained that “there is a huge density gap between them, and the accepted wisdom has been that  ice does not exist within that density gap. That's because liquid water with a density of  is in the center, so scientists thought it was impossible for ice to form at that density.Co-author Professor Andrea Sella from UCL explained: “We have shown that it is possible to create what looks like a  kind of stop-motion water. This is an unexpected and quite surprising finding.”