#phases

Moon's phases. Elements of Astronomy. 1855.

"Venus appears largest when in the crescent phase." Natural History. December 1949.

A bizarre new state of matter may be hiding inside Uranus and Neptune

The deep interiors of ice giant planets such as Uranus and Neptune may contain a previously unknown form of matter. This possibility comes from new computer simulations conducted by Carnegie scientists Cong Liu and Ronald Cohen. Their study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that carbon hydride could take on an unusual quasi-one-dimensional superionic state under the intense pressures and temperatures found far beneath the surfaces of these distant planets.

everything in nature has phases

Is glass a solid or a super slow liquid? Physicists create equilibrium glassy phase from rod-shaped particles

Glass appears to be a solid, but in theory it sometimes behaves more like an extremely slow liquid. Physicists in Utrecht now show that glass-like structures can also exist in equilibrium, which is something many theories say should be impossible. The bottom parts of medieval window panes, such as those in old cathedrals, are often thicker than the top. Has the material slowly flowed downward over the centuries, and does this mean that glass actually flows? This is a persistent myth, and the explanation lies in the way glass was produced in the Middle Ages. Because window panes were made by hand, their structure was often irregular and contained thinner and thicker parts. The panes were usually installed in the frame with the thicker side at the bottom, which made them more stable. Still, the story touches on a real physics question. What glass actually is, a solid or a very slow liquid, turns out to be more difficult to answer than it seems.