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Shadowed Lunar Craters May Be Coldest Spot In the Solar System

Posted by Soulskill on from the alright-niven-get-cracking dept.

sciencehabit writes "Science reports: 'What's the coldest spot in the solar system? For now, that distinction belongs to permanently shadowed craters near the moon's south pole, according to the first results from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft announced today at a NASA press conference. Another instrument has returned hints of water ice in some of these cold spots, ... but it also showed signs of water ice in impossibly hot places, too.'"

3 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Really? by Useful+Wheat · · Score: 3, Informative

    Since nobody is going to read it, the coldest temperature is 33K. The reason they care is because they'll probably find a lot of ice there.

    I'm not sure how I feel about this. I was of the understanding that space was on the order of 3K due to the cosmic background radiation. 33K is positively warm compared to this.

  2. You mean "Coldest Naturally Occurring Spot" by Scorpinox · · Score: 4, Informative

    The coldest spot in the universe would be in Boulder Colorado where they do absolute zero experiments.

    [source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/phenom-200801.html ]

    1. Re:You mean "Coldest Naturally Occurring Spot" by Criliric · · Score: 4, Informative
      no where on that page does it say that they have made it to absolute zero... infact:

      Physicists acknowledge they can never reach the coldest conceivable temperature, known as absolute zero and long ago calculated to be minus 459.67F.