Cold Atom Laboratory is the name of a new NASA scientific project, one of the most ambitious undertaken by the US space agency. The project’s objective is quite clear, namely, to artificially create in space the coldest point of the known universe.
For this, NASA is going to use lasers, which are essential to make the temperature drop so drastically. In theory, it should be about 10 billion times colder than the emptiness of space, a situation that is almost unthinkable for the human mind.
NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory also has the goal of studying how matter behaves at temperatures by 10 billion times lower than in the outer space
Creating the coldest place in the universe has a well-defined scientific utility and that is to check how matter behaves in this situation. Theoretically, when temperatures reach absolute zero or minus 273 degrees Celsius, also known as Zero Kalvin, the atoms freeze.
Through this experiment, NASA does not want them to freeze but to work so slowly that the scientist can observe some quantum phenomena, something that cannot be done on Earth because the temperature can barely withstand a fraction of a second.
NASA will conduct its experiments on the International Space Station (ISS)
Although this experiment may seem irrelevant in the short term, it is one of the reasons why the International Space Station exists, as there will be the place where NASA’s experiment will be conducted.
Cold Atom Laboratory will allow scientists to experiment in zero gravity with natural phenomena that do not occur on Earth or do not occur in the same way as they would occur in space.
There are several scientific inventions and advances made by NASA that have a significant impact on our daily lives. Maybe, NASA hopes, the Cold Atom Laboratory will be one of the experiments that will have a positive impact in the future research. The mission will be launched soon.
