The most cold place in the universe turned out to be right in our Earth orbit

What's so weird? See how science explains.

Do you know where the coldest place in the universe is located? With human knowledge at the moment, it is Nebula - a nebula located 5,000 light years away.

The gases in this nebula are even colder than the universe itself.

However, even if it was Nebula, the temperature would not reach absolute zero - or 0 ° K (Kelvin, equivalent to -273.15 ° C). The coldest temperature estimated in Nebula is only 1.15 ° K, or -272 ° C.

But unexpectedly, now on Earth orbit there is a really cold place, the most cosmic , than Nebula. And that's our famous international ISS space station .

This is the coldest place in the universe.

ISS only achieved this title, after the experts brought the temperature in the ISS test chamber down to the absolute zero mark. Rather, it is close to touch (only 0 ° K higher than a fraction of 1 degree), but that is more than enough to go into history about the coldest place ever recorded in the universe.

Specifically, the study was conducted in the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) , which aims to create a physical state unlike any other in four known types (including snakes). , liquid, gas and plasma). That is (Bose-Einstein Condensate - BEC).

BEC is a physical state of diluted boson gas cooled to an absolute temperature near zero, causing the atom to shift like waves - which is very unusual. If we understand this state, we will have clues about the physical phenomena that occur at the extreme.

And with this experiment, this is the first time the BEC has been successfully created in Earth's orbit.

"Being experimented with BEC in a space station is really like a dream," said Robert Thompson, a NASA expert in the CAL project.

"A long journey to get here, but it is really worth it, because we have a lot of things that can be done with this number of tools."

Experimental equipment of CAL.

Strictly speaking, CAL has brought the temperature down to 100 nanokelvin (1 nanokelvin = 1 billionth Kelvin) - meaning much colder than the universe (which is 3 ° K) and Nebula. And in the cosmic environment, BEC has existed longer, making science more observable.

To create BEC, experts use magnetic fields or lasers. Low-density gases will be locked into atoms, then the temperature in them will decrease as the atom expands. The longer the gas is trapped, the lower the temperature will be, until the BEC state is reached.

On Earth, BEC only lasts for a fraction of a second due to gravity. But on CALs, BEC can last up to 5-10 seconds, and we can repeat the experiment up to 6 hours a day. Those are too impressive numbers for further research.

It is known that CAL is still in the testing phase, and is expected to be operational in September next if there are no problems. However, with this success, the chance of encountering errors is extremely small.