Space can be very , very cold , but it ’s not stale enough for the NASA scientists design a new ultra - depressed - temperature experimentation for the International Space Station .
The suite of instruments is called CAL , Cold Atom Laboratory , and it ’s about the sizing of an ice - boxful . CAL has optical maser , an electromagnetic “ knife ” , and a vacuum chamber . It will be able to cool atoms up to a billionth of a degree over absolute zero – about 100 million time colder than mysterious quad .
The data-based retinue was developed by NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and it is undergoing its final tests before its schedule launching in August on board SpaceX CRS-12 . CAL will be used for several experiments by five different research teams to shed a light on the biggest mysteries of the universe .
" Studying these hyper - cold-blooded atoms could remold our agreement of thing and the cardinal nature of gravity , " articulate CAL Project Scientist Robert Thompson of JPL in astatement . " The experiments we ’ll do with the Cold Atom Lab will give us penetration into gravity and sorry Energy Department – some of the most pervasive forces in the universe . "
The utmost chilling produced by CAL will set aside atoms to reach the criticalBose - Einstein condensate , a superfluid state . In this state , quantum mechanic reign supreme and matter shows its wave - like nature . CAL will be the first attempt by NASA to produce superfluids in space .
“ If you had superfluid water and spun it around in a glass , it would spin forever , " said Anita Sengupta of JPL , Cold Atom Lab project director . " There ’s no viscosity to slow it down and dissipate the kinetic vim . If we can better understand the physics of superfluids , we can peradventure learn to use those for more efficient transfer of energy . "
On Earth , these state last for a fraction of a second before they fall to the bottom of the experimentation . Inside CAL , they are count on to last between five and 10 seconds as they move in freefall around the Earth . Future developments might stretch this to hundreds of sec .
Cracking the properties of the Bose - Einstein condensation might help with several technologies , include energy transmission , quantum computers , and more .
But it ’s not just technology . Being free of the shackles of graveness will allow the radical - cool corpuscle to behave like they are in deep space and may give us a hint about the unfeigned nature ofdark energy , the mysterious inwardness responsible for for the accelerated expansion of the cosmos .
