PBS Space Time
How Can Matter Be BOTH Liquid AND Gas?
2022 • E34 Dec 13, 2022 22m
Supercritical Fluids are one the strangest states of matter and yet they are found everywhere from Decaf Coffee, to dry cleaning, to the atmosphere of Jupiter. When we think of an exotic state of matter we tend to think of the really weird things that matter can do in extreme circumstances - like how at very high temperatures we get the plasma that the sun is made of, or at extreme densities we get the nuclear matter of neutron stars. But there’s one state of matter - supercritical fluid - that’s not solid, liquid or gas, but is also not confined to extreme or rare environments. In fact, there are planets in our solar system completely covered with oceans of the stuff, and you’ve often been the beneficiary of its powers without even knowing it.
