With great pride, authorities from NASA have revealed that the coldest place in the universe will soon be launched into space as they are all set with their plan. The said plan is to fly into space an ice chest-sized box, which has allegedly been designed to create the coolest spot in the universe. With the use of lasers and a vacuum chamber, the Cold Atom LAB or CAL is reportedly said to reduce a handful of atoms to temperatures only a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero. That said, NASA scientists believe that they can use this setup to study the weird physics that arises in these extreme conditions.
Why Is NASA Doing This?
According to reports revealed by the International Business Times, due to the fact that it has never been created or observed in space, scientists explain that they want to study a mysterious form of matter known as Bose-Einstein condensates. NASA experts continue to explain that Earth's gravity makes studying Bose-Einstein condensates tricky as they can only be observed for fractions of a second. However, in space, aboard the ISS, the American space agency says that the atoms can hold their wave-like forms longer, which will then provide a significant number of scientists with a wider window of opportunity to understand physics at its most basic level.
Furthermore, as per Popular Mechanics, having an increased knowledge in terms of Bose-Einstein condensates was said to have created a host of applications in science and technology. It was found that Bose-Einstein condensates could most likely be used in building better atomic clocks or quantum computers, as well as better types of gravitational detectors in order to study the dark matter and dark energy. In one of his statements, CAL Project Scientist Robert Thompson of JPL has explained that studying these hyper-cold atoms could potentially reshape our understanding of matter and the fundamental nature of gravity.
The Coldest Place In The Universe
Meanwhile, it was found that NASA's CAL would likely allow Bose-Einstein condensates to be observable for up to 5 to 10 seconds. On the other hand, experts have highly emphasized that in terms of tech advancements being what they are today; CAL is likely seen to have been developed in order to help ensuring that Bose-Einstein condensates could be observable for hundreds of seconds in the future. Ultimately, according to JPL's Kamal Oudrhiri, despite current technological advancements 95 percent of the universe still remains a mystery to humans and it is believed that successfully coming up with this project could change that perception.
