Dust particles make up only about one percent of a typical interstellar cloud. Because its so cold in space, about 10 degrees above absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius), water and carbon monoxide freeze into icy shells around the dust. They melt off as gravity collapses the cloud into a tight ball, warming it.

Once the ice melts, it evaporates, radiating away heat that would otherwise allow an interstellar cloud to expand just as fast as it collapses and prevent the birth of a star.

In order to understand star formation, McCoustra said, its important to know when ice molecules melt and turn into gas. So McCoustra and his team created frigid temperatures inside a vacuum chamber, where the atmospheric pressure was about ten billion-billionths of what we feel on Earth.

By placing carbon monoxide molecules on an icy surface, then slowly heating it until water molecules began to break away, the researchers were able to measure the strength of the molecular bonds and found that more heat was needed to separate them than previously thought.

"Until recently, processes of this kind have been poorly understood," McCoustra said, adding that at very low temperatures, water takes on a sponge-like quality, absorbing the carbon monoxide then locking it away until all the water is evaporated.

Scientists at the University of London have already begun including McCoustras findings into their models of star formation, and researchers believe they could also be applied to other space environments, like the clouds of gas and dust surrounding comets, as well.

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