In a phenomenon called superheating<\/a>, a solid can be heated too quickly for its atoms to have time enter a liquid state. Crystals can remain intact way past their standard melting point, albeit for a very, very brief amount of time.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong>US Startup Claims It Can Make Gold Using Fusion Technology<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Typically, the entropy catastrophe is thought to be three times the standard melting point. Using a new method for calculating the energy of reflected X-rays to accurately measure absorbed heat energy, the team found gold could be heated 14 times that limit before it finally liquified.<\/p>\n As surprising as it sounds, the results don’t break any laws of thermodynamics<\/a> \u2013 they just show that sometimes reactions happen too quickly for the laws of thermodynamics<\/a> to apply. It seems the atoms inside gold have nowhere to move to for a brief period of time, allowing thermal energy to dissipate before the structure can give way.<\/p>\n The researchers were able to reach 19,000\u2009Kelvin (that’s around 18,700 degrees Celsius or just over 33,700 degrees Fahrenheit), with the gold retaining its solid structure for more than 2 picoseconds (a picosecond is a trillionth of a second) \u2013 long enough to prompt the researchers to reconsider existing models.<\/p>\n “This measurement not only surpasses the previously predicted bounds of the entropy catastrophe but also suggests a much higher threshold for the superheating of solids, thereby rewriting the fundamental understanding of the stability of the solid phase under extreme conditions,” write<\/a> the researchers in their published paper.<\/p>\n The implications here are intriguing and exciting for physicists: it’s possible that some solids don’t have a melting point<\/a> at all, at least when superheated for ultra-short periods of time.<\/p>\n “Our experiments clearly demonstrate that the previously proposed limit of superheating can be exceeded by far if the material is heated fast enough,” write<\/a> the researchers.<\/p>\n There are all kinds of areas where this new knowledge is going to be useful. Super-quick heating events happen everywhere from asteroid collisions<\/a> deep in space, to nuclear reactors here on Earth, and scientists are now going to have a better understanding of what’s happening within these events.<\/p>\n The researchers want to see if other solids react in the same way as gold in future studies, as well as exploring the entropy catastrophe further: essentially redrawing the chart of when solids can no longer exist as solids.<\/p>\n “Maybe we thought we solved it in the 1980s with this superheating limit, but now I think it’s an open question again,” physicist Thomas White, from the University of Nevada, told Alex Wilkins at New Scientist<\/a>.<\/p>\n “How hot can you make something before it melts?”<\/p>\n![\"Heated](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HeatedGold.jpg\")
Gold was heated many times beyond its melting point. (White et al., Nature, 2025)<\/p>\n