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blacksideblue t1_jd52p3b wrote

Reply to comment by KarlSethMoran in Can a single atom be determined to be in any particular phase of matter? by Zalack

so in a zero pressure environment like space, does that mean all matter is out of phase until gravity or some form of surface tension groups atoms together?

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KarlSethMoran t1_jd6vmwt wrote

I don't get what you mean by "out of phase". Gravity is exceedingly weak at the atomic scale, it can be safely ignored.

Atoms feel van der Waals attraction. It's a very weak interaction, but billions of billions times stronger than gravity at this scale still. It will get even noble gases into a crystal when there's sufficiently little motion.

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