NASA is all set to send an ice chest-sized box to the International Space Station to create the coolest spot in the universe.<\/p>\n
The suite of instruments developed by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is set to be sent on a SpaceX cargo delivery to the space station in August, the US space agency said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The ice box called the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) is in the final stages of assembly at JPL.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts instruments are designed to freeze gas atoms to a mere billionth of a degree above absolute zero. That\u2019s more than 100 million times colder than the depths of space,\u201d NASA said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudying these hyper-cold atoms could reshape our understanding of matter and the fundamental nature of gravity,\u201d said CAL Project Scientist Robert Thompson of JPL.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experiments we\u2019ll do with the Cold Atom Lab will give us insight into gravity and dark energy\u2014some of the most pervasive forces in the universe,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n
When atoms are cooled to extreme temperatures, as they will be inside of CAL, they can form a distinct state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate.<\/p>\n
In this state, familiar rules of physics recede and quantum physics begins to take over.<\/p>\n
Matter can be observed behaving less like particles and more like waves.<\/p>\n
NASA has never before created or observed Bose-Einstein condensates in space. On Earth, the pull of gravity causes atoms to continually settle towards the ground, meaning they are typically only observable for fractions of a second.<\/p>\n
But on the International Space Station, ultra-cold atoms can hold their wave-like forms longer while in freefall. That offers scientists a longer window to understand physics at its most basic level.<\/p>\n
Thompson estimated that CAL will allow Bose-Einstein condensates to be observable for up to five to 10 seconds and future development of the technologies used on CAL could allow them to last for hundreds of seconds.<\/p>\n
Five scientific teams plan to conduct experiments using the Cold Atom Lab.<\/p>\n
The results of these experiments could potentially lead to a number of improved technologies, including sensors, quantum computers and atomic clocks used in spacecraft navigation, NASA said.<\/p>\n
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