Published on: 2026-07-22
Mind-bending Chemistry and Physics
If you hold a perfectly clean, smooth-surfaced gold ring and a identical-looking lead ring, and you were somehow able to press them together in the vacuum of space, what would occur?
Correct
This is called cold welding! On Earth, our atmosphere creates a thin layer of oxidation or moisture on metal surfaces that prevents atoms from bonding. If you remove that layer in the emptiness of space, the atoms of the two pieces of metal cannot tell they are separate objects and simply bond together as if they were always one piece. Metal is not brittle enough to just turn into dust, it is not bouncy enough to act like a rubber ball, and magnetism has nothing to do with this atomic-level atomic mingling party.