Solid, liquid and gas – these are the physical states of matter most people know. The lesser-known state plasma consists of highly charged particles with extremely high kinetic energy.
But then there’s the following states of matter…
Bose-Einstein condensate: a state that occurs very close to absolute zero. At this extremely low temperature, molecular motion almost stops and atoms begin to clump together.
Quark-gluon plasma: the state with the highest energy level. It is basically the building blocks of matter existing in a soup resembling conditions just after the Universe was created.
Degenerate matter: the highly compressed state which often exists in the cores of massive stars. The core’s gas is super compressed and the primary source of pressure is no longer thermal, but quantum.
Related reading: SpaceWatch: Tales of matter and diamonds
Originally published by Cosmos as The seven states of matter explained
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