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Scientists Set New Coldest Temperature Record

Posted by michael on from the wear-your-mittens dept.

one_who_uses_unix writes "Scientists recently successfully cooled a gas to the coldest temperature ever recorded ABC News reports. This is good news for proponents of basic research (read non-applied) which has seen shrinking budgets over the past few decades, and for overclockers hoping to squeeze 1 more cycle out of their CPUs."

3 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Amazing... by feidaykin · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The last time a new record was set, a scientist was quoted saying that if there was a colder temperature anywhere in the universe, it was in the lab of an alien civilization.

    I would imagine his opinion would remain unchanged by this new record...

    This is the coldest known place in the universe: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030220.html

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    "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

  2. Re:Low temperatures scare me by 4of12 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Will electrons fall out of orbit and cause atoms to collapse

    Probably not, since most electrons live in their lowest allowable quantum state already, unless you're in a plasma.

    This really is an achievement, getting down to a nanokelvin.

    Our experience is using degrees or Kelvin to measure temperature and people tend not to be impressed that the coldest temperature went from a microK to a nanoK, because the upper end of the scale is millions and billions of degrees - so who cares about changing temperature from 10^-3 K to 10^-9 K?

    It was explained once to me that if the temperature scale were redefined using a logarithmic mapping (T_new = log(T_old)) that we'd be a lot more impressed with low temperatures and with the asympototically unreachable nature of "absolute zero" that sits at a finite and seemingly reachable value.

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  3. Re:Low temperatures scare me by Alsee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    logarithmic mapping

    Good idea. Here is a logarithmic (base 10) scale:

    Core of a supernova: 9.2
    Highest man made (1996): 8.7
    Core of the Sun: 7.2
    Surface of the Sun: 3.75
    Water boils: 2.57
    Human body temperature: 2.49
    Room temperature: 2.47
    Water freezes: 2.44
    Liquid oxygen: 1.95
    Dark side of the moon: 1.95
    Pluto: 1.68
    Deepest depths of space: 0.44 (Cosmic microwave background)
    Boomerang Nebula, coldest natural place in the universe: roughly zero
    Coldest man made (1995): -6.77
    Coldest man made (today): -9.3

    Man made (-9.3) is as much colder than coldest place in the natural universe (zero) as the core of a supernova (9.2) is hotter than the coldest place in the natural universe.

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