The Agency plans to study the behavior of atoms in these conditions.
This summer NASA will send to the International space station, the special refrigerator in which it is planned to create “the coldest place in the Universe”, reported on the Agency’s website. The researchers will launch to the ISS device CAL – drawer-fridge the size of a suitcase.
The tools inside it will freeze the atoms to the temperatures billionth of a degree Kelvin absolute zero more. As scholars have noted, this is 100 million times colder than deep space. “Experiments with such atoms can change our view of what constitutes matter and will help us to uncover the fundamental nature of gravity.
In addition, the device CAL will allow us to get closer to understanding what constitutes the dark energy, one of the most mysterious substances of the Universe,” said Robert, project Manager at CAL jet propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena.
When atoms are cooled to a temperature close to that which will be created in CAL, they create Condensation Bose-Einstein condensate, which is a unusual in its properties form of matter similar to gas and liquid, which behaves as a single atom and has a typical “atomic” properties. The absence of earth’s gravity on the ISS will extend the “life” of the condensate in the tens and hundreds of times, allowing the researchers to study its properties.
In may last year, NASA astronauts launched to the ISS experimental inflatable module beam, intended for the accommodation of the members of the station crew. It is planned that tests of the beam will be carried out for at least two years. During this time the astronauts will evaluate its ability to protect from radiation, keep the temperature, as well as to resist the blows of micrometeorites, dust and other factors of the space environment.
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