A scientist has spent a large portion of his career studying the formation of snowflakes and has crushed a childhood truth that we were all raised to believe — that no two snowflakes are alike.

Ken Libbrecht, a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, became curious about the mechanics behind the formation of snowflakes. In addition to studying black holes and gravitational waves, Libbrecht has spent the past 20 years recreating snowflakes in his lab.

"I became interested in ice growth from the physics side, trying to understand the molecular dynamics of crystal growth," Libbrecht told weather.com. "It all gets very difficult pretty quickly, and we still don't really understand how crystals grow in detail."

Libbrecht found identical snowflakes can be produced in a lab and theorized the same would be true in nature, but only if the conditions were just right. He notes, however, the odds that a person would ever come across a match are astronomically high because nature is very different from a lab.

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To conduct his experiment, Libbrecht constructed a chamber that would mimic conditions found in clouds, where snowflakes are formed.

When he applied the same conditions to two crystals on a plate, they formed "identical" snowflakes.

"Because the two crystals experienced the same changing growth conditions, they grew into nearly the same shape," said Libbrecht on his website. He calls them identical because "like identical-twin people, these snow crystal twins are clearly very similar to one another, although they are not precisely identical."

Libbrecht stressed nature is different from a lab and no two ice crystals ever travel together in nature. Instead, each crystal takes a different path, experiencing its own unique formation depending on the conditions it encounters.

While some have said Libbrecht's experiments have "ruined winter for everyone," Libbrecht disagrees.

"I like to think I'm making it better," Libbrecht told weather.com. "My mission is increasing snowflake awareness everywhere."