Notable Cold Locations and Objects
- The coldest known temperature ever achieved is a state of matter called the Bose–Einstein condensate which was first theorized to exist by Satyendra Nath Bose in 1924 and first created by Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman, and co-workers at JILA on June 5, 1995. They did this by cooling a dilute vapor consisting of approximately two thousand rubidium-87 atoms to below 170 nK (one nK or nano K is a billionith (10^-9) of a Kelvin) using a combination of laser cooling (a technique that won its inventors Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, and William D. Phillips the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics) and magnetic evaporative cooling.
- The Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known natural location in the universe, with a temperature that is estimated at 1 K (kelvin) (−272.15 °C/−457.87 °F).
- Herschel Space Observatory instruments and detectors are kept at temperatures below 2 K, using a large helium tank for cooling.
- Absent any other source of heat, the temperature of the Universe is roughly 2.725 kelvin, due to the Cosmic microwave background radiation, a remnant of the big bang.
- Neptune's moon Triton has a surface temperature of −235 °C (−390 °F).
- Uranus with a black-body temperature of 58.2 K (-215.0 °C, -354.9 °F).
- Saturn with a black-body temperature of 81.1 K (-192.0 °C, -313.7 °F).
- Mercury, despite being close to the Sun, is actually cold during its night, with a temperature of about −170 °C (−275 °F). Mercury is cold during its night because it has no atmosphere to trap in heat from the Sun.
- Jupiter with a black-body temperature of 110.0 K (-163.2 °C, -261.67 °F).
- Mars with a black-body temperature of 210.1 K (-63.05 °C, -81.49 °F).
- The coldest continent on Earth is Antarctica. The coldest place on Earth is the Antarctic Plateau, an area of Antarctica around the South Pole that has an altitude of around 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). The lowest reliably measured temperature on Earth of 183.9 K (-89.2 °C, -128.6 °F) was recorded there at Vostok Station on 21 July 1983 (See List of weather records).
Read more about this topic: Cold
Famous quotes containing the words notable, cold and/or objects:
“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
—For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“It is an inexpressible Pleasure to know a little of the World, and be of no Character or Significancy in it. To be ever unconcerned, and ever looking on new Objects with an endless Curiosity, is a Delight known only to those who are turned for Speculation: Nay, they who enjoy it, must value things only as they are the Objects of Speculation, without drawing any worldly Advantage to themselves from them, but just as they are what contribute to their Amusement, or the Improvement of the Mind.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)