Scientist have just discovered that, at an atomic level, these elements have both liquid and solid states, giving context to what may be hidden in the cores of celestial bodies.
A New State of Water Reveals a Hidden Ocean in Earth’s Mantle — https://youtu.be/pgm4z8vJVVk
On the chain-melted phase of matter
https://www.pnas.org/content/116/21/10297
“We develop here a classical interatomic forcefield for the element potassium using machine-learning techniques and simulate the chain-melted state with up to 20,000 atoms. We show that in the chain-melted state, guest-atom correlations are lost in three dimensions, providing the entropy necessary for its thermodynamic stability.”
Elements can be solid and liquid at same time
https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2019/elements-can-be-solid-and-liquid-at-same-time
“A team led by scientists from the University of Edinburgh used powerful computer simulations to study the existence of the state – known as the chain-melted state. Simulating how up to 20,000 potassium atoms behave under extreme conditions revealed that the structures formed represent the new, stable state of matter. Applying pressure to the atoms leads to the formation of two interlinked solid lattice structures, the team says.”
Information on Alkali Metals
“Alkali metals react with water to produce heat, hydrogen gas, and the corresponding metal hydroxide. The heat produced by this reaction may ignite the hydrogen or the metal itself, resulting in a fire or an explosion. The heavier alkali metals will react more violently with water.“
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