Space and Physics
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Have you ever noticed whilst cooking that sometimes bead-like water droplets seem to dance around the bottom of the hot pan? Well, that's the Leidenfrost effect, and it only occurs above specific temperatures. If you place a liquid onto a hot surface that is below the boiling point of the liquid (100 degrees Celsius for water), the liquid will bubble away and slowly evaporate. If you increase the temperature to slightly above the boiling point, the liquid evaporates rapidly. However, if you increase the temperature even more, exceeding the Leidenfrost point, this cool phenomenon called the Leidenfrost effect comes into play. This occurs when the surface temperature is so hot that it generates a thin layer of vapor that lies between the surface itself and the liquid. This causes the liquid to become insulated, and slows down the evaporation.
Scientists from the University of Bath, led by Dr. Takashina, have experimented with this effect, and documented some incredible footage including water flowing uphill. Check it out on this YouTube video:
![An artist’s concept looks down into the core of the galaxy M87, which is just left of centre and appears as a large blue dot. A bright blue-white, narrow and linear jet of plasma transects the illustration from centre left to upper right. It begins at the source of the jet, the galaxy’s black hole, which is surrounded by a blue spiral of material. At lower right is a red giant star that is far from the black hole and close to the viewer. A bridge of glowing gas links the star to a smaller white dwarf star companion immediately to its left. Engorged with infalling hydrogen from the red giant star, the smaller star exploded in a blue-white flash, which looks like numerous diffraction spikes emitted in all directions. Thousands of stars are in the background.]](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/76155/aImg/79193/jet-m.jpg)
