{"id":30910,"date":"2026-01-24T23:15:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T23:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/?p=30910"},"modified":"2026-01-24T23:15:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T23:15:36","slug":"the-mystery-of-snow-crystal-shapes-finally-has-an-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/the-mystery-of-snow-crystal-shapes-finally-has-an-answer","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery of Snow Crystal Shapes Finally Has an Answer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Points<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Scientists have a new theory that explains why snowflakes form in a variety of shapes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The theory is based on a tiny, invisible layer of liquid water on the surface of ice.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The thickness of this &#8220;premelting film&#8221; changes with temperature and pressure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These changes cause the different faces of the ice crystal to grow at different rates, creating different shapes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why do snowflakes form in such a dazzling variety of intricate shapes? For over a century, scientists have been stumped by this question. Now, a researcher in Spain believes he has finally found the answer, and it has to do with a tiny, invisible layer of liquid water that exists on the surface of ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea of a &#8220;premelting film&#8221; on ice was first proposed by the famous physicist Michael Faraday, but it has since been a source of scientific debate. Some experiments have shown that it exists, while others have found no evidence of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a new study, Luis MacDowell from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid used computer simulations to get a closer look at ice&#8217;s surface. He found that the thin liquid layer does indeed exist, but only under very specific conditions, right at the &#8220;triple point&#8221; where ice, liquid water, and water vapor can all coexist in perfect equilibrium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MacDowell argues that the reason for all the past confusion is that it&#8217;s incredibly difficult to create these perfect equilibrium conditions in a lab. Even a tiny deviation can throw off the results and make the liquid layer disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, how does this explain the shape of snowflakes? MacDowell&#8217;s theory is that as the temperature and pressure in a snow cloud change, the thickness of this liquid film also changes. At certain points, the film undergoes a &#8220;surface phase transition,&#8221; like a tiny, two-dimensional version of water turning to ice. Each of these transitions causes a sudden change in the growth rate of the ice crystal&#8217;s different faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because the face and the sides of the crystal grow at different speeds, a variety of shapes can emerge, from simple hexagonal prisms to the complex, branching dendrites we all know and love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source:<\/strong> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.aip.org\/aip\/jcp\/article\/164\/3\/030901\/3377618\/The-key-physics-of-ice-premelting\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/pubs.aip.org\/aip\/jcp\/article\/164\/3\/030901\/3377618\/The-key-physics-of-ice-premelting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Journal of Chemical Physics<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(2026).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Points Why do snowflakes form in such a dazzling variety of intricate shapes? For over a century, scientists have been stumped by this question.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techgolly.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}