Some metals like iron and tungsten glow when heated to extreme temperatures, and even when they reach a melted state. Yet some other metals such as aluminum do not glow at all even when heated beyond their melting point.
Is it just some specific properties of certain metals, or is it some of the elements within metals that can cause it to glow when heated?
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All materials will glow the same color at the same temperature. Glowing purely a function of the temperature, rather than the material. Even gas or liquids will glow. The only thing the material effects is how bright the glow is. Naturally dark materials like iron, tungsten, or carbon will glow more brightly than white or silvery materials.
Because different metals have different melting points, some metals will glow as solids, while others will melt into a liquid well before they reach the temperature where they will glow (mercury, lead, etc). If you continue to heat the liquid metal to the same temperature as the glowing iron, the liquid will glow the same color as the iron.
Metals tend to have high melting points and the ones we usually deal with don’t burn in the Earth’s atmosphere. Many non-metal materials (wood, plastic) will burn before they get hot enough to melt or glow with heat, so we don’t think of them as something that can glow. Non-metals with high heat resistance will glow at high temperature, the same as metals will.
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