How are enantiomers characterized in relation to one another?

Enantiomers are a specific type of stereoisomer that are characterized by their relationship as nonsuperimposable mirror images of each other. This means that if you were to create a mirror image of one enantiomer, you would not be able to align it perfectly with the original molecule through any rotation or translation. This property is a result of the presence of chiral centers, which introduce asymmetry into the molecules, making them non-identical in three-dimensional space.

The property of being nonsuperimposable is critical in understanding the behavior of enantiomers in biological systems since they can have different effects in chemical reactions and interactions with biological macromolecules, such as enzymes and receptors. Thus, the ability to distinguish between enantiomers based on their spatial arrangement is essential in various applications, including pharmaceuticals, where one enantiomer may be therapeutically active while the other could be inert or even harmful.