For astronomers, probing the mysteries of “space ice”—its molecular makeup and how it formed—could be the key to understanding not just extraterrestrial geology but also the potential for alien life.

For years, researchers have provided contradictory evidence about the “premelting film” of ice, its thickness and whether it ...

Water frozen in the depths of space has long been considered a shapeless, frozen fog. For decades, scientists believed it formed without structure, too cold and still to grow orderly crystals. But a ...