system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Can metals be gases? What would it look like?

As we know, everything has a freezing, melting boiling point etc, but when a metal boils does it turn into a gas? If it does, what does it look like?
gpt
You are probably familiar with at least one example of this, which is the sodium vapor commonly used in street lamps.  However, rather than boiling the phase change is sublimation -- solid sodium to sodium vapor.

There are two aspects of color that you have to keep in mind as being separate when you think about this sort of thing.  One of them is the black body color and the other is the color associated with the frequency of changes in energy level associated with a transition in energy level.  Something like a hot poker in the fire glows like a black body, which is a smooth, single-peaked distribution of wavelengths whose apparent color is determined by temperature.  Something like mercury or sodium light bulbs let off specific wavelengths, however.  You can actually observe the spectral fingerprint of one of those lights with a homemade spectroscope.  Google paper towel roll spectroscope if you feel like a DIY time sink.