NASA Wants to Create the Coolest Spot in the Universe, 100 million times colder than deep space.

Artist's concept of an atom chip for use by NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory

A group of researchers at NASA, plans to send a box into space that will eventually house the coldest spot in the universe.
Inside that box, lasers, a vacuum chamber and an electromagnetic "knife" will be used to cancel out the energy of gas particles, slowing them until they're almost motionless. This suite of instruments is called the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), and was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The instrument is still in its final stages of construction, so this mission, set to launch in August, will be its first big test.
Its instruments are designed to freeze gas atoms to a mere billionth of a degree above absolute zero. That's more than 100 million times colder than the depths of space.
"Studying these hyper-cold atoms could reshape our understanding of matter and the fundamental nature of gravity," said CAL Project Scientist Robert Thompson of JPL. "The experiments we'll do with the Cold Atom Lab will give us insight into gravity and dark energy -- some of the most pervasive forces in the universe."
The Cold Atom Lab will hitch a ride on a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station, where it's hoped the super-chilled box will reveal strange new physics when atoms are cooled to a mere billionth of a degree above absolute zero.
The research could lead to new understandings of matter, dark matter, and could lead to the development of new sensors, quantum computers and atomic clocks used in spacecraft navigation, according to a news release from NASA.

Source:-NASA

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