A new instrument made by NASA for use on the International Space Station will be the coldest place in the known universe when it is operational by the year 2016. The average temperature in space is around 2 point 7 Kelvin, or negative 454 point 81 degrees Fahrenheit.
A new instrument made by NASA for use on the International Space Station will be the coldest place in the known universe when it is operational by the year 2016.
The average temperature in space is around 2 point 7 Kelvin, or negative 454 point 81 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Cold Atom Laboratory can reach temperatures as low as 100 picokelvin, which is one ten-billionth of a degree above absolute zero.
A NASA report on this project further explains:
Researchers experimenting with temperatures this low on Earth are limited by our planet’s gravity.
But in the microgravity of space, scientists can watch how molecules react in the cold for up to 20 seconds.
The instrument will help scientists understand Bose-Einstein condensates, which happen when atoms get so cold they become a single wave of matter.
This is the first time that the quantum effects of Bose-Einstien condensates might become visible to the human eye.
After being exposed to extremely low temperatures, states of matter like solid, liquid and gas are challenged.
When molecules are that cold, matter can be in two places at once, and behave as particles and waves simultaneously.
