MAY 14, 2017 10:57 AM PDT

Meet Supersolid, the Newest State of Matter

WRITTEN BY: Anthony Bouchard


In school, you probably learned of the three states of matter: gas, liquid, and solid, but the states of matter don't actually end there; those are the just the simplest states of matter.

We also know of plasma, which has been around for quite a while, but newer states of matter like Bose-Einstien Condensate and superfluid also exist. Each of these are interesting and have only been known about for a few years.

In a superfluid, the molecules of the matter flow with nearly zero friction. In other words, you could keep stirring a superfluid in a cup, and it would seemingly never slow down like a regular liquid would.

On the other hand, a newly-discovered state of matter known as a supersolid has also been detailed. A supersolid is a lot like a superfluid, except that the molecules are more congealed. It's described as having "a superfluid flow with a long-range spatial periodicity of a solid."

Supersolids work a lot like supersolids, except that the matter would be gel-like instead of liquid-like. Realistically, it's still just like a superfluid, but because it's gel-like, it has some solid-like properties as well.

There are so many states of matter out there that must of us have never even heard of, but scientists are only just now scratching the surface. It should be interesting to see where this matter research will land us in coming years.

About the Author
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Fascinated by scientific discoveries and media, Anthony found his way here at LabRoots, where he would be able to dabble in the two. Anthony is a technology junkie that has vast experience in computer systems and automobile mechanics, as opposite as those sound.
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