On the experimental side, static experiments combined with x-ray diffraction measurements have established the high-pressure melting curve up to 2 Mbar but with a location of the (γ-ε liq) triple point that varies between 0.6 and 1.3 Mbar [10]. Above 2 Mbar, shock techniques are formally the most promising approach. Recently, a first step toward a consensus between static and dynamical experiments [10] has been reached by using diffraction measurements on static compression experiments. However, uncertainties between the two approaches will remain as long as the solid-liquid transition is not directly observed using a structural diagnostics during dynamic compression. Furthermore, measurements concerning transport properties such as thermal conductivity or magnetic properties at extreme conditions that are needed for planetary modeling are mostly nonexistent. Current estimates for these properties based on DFT predictions require experimental validations that could be provided by direct information on the changes taking place at the electronic structure level. X-ray absorption near edge spectra (XANES) measurements that are routinely performed in static experiments could provide such a constraint [11]. It was also recently developed in dynamical experiments using high power lasers to study phase transitions during isochoric heating by a proton beam [12], along the aluminum shock Hugoniot [13], and to study the nonmetal-metal transition during the release of an aluminum plasma [14].