the hottest and coldest temperatures ever observed in the entire universe both occured on Earth (in laboratories)?

497 viewsOtherPhysics

I can get that we may have created something (quark-gluon plasma) at 4 trillion degrees Celsius that is hotter than a supernova, but…

How could we have created the coldest thing ever, at 100pK (less than 1 K), and that there is nothing colder? Might a single atom in deep space not have less energy? Apparently some nebula is the coldest thing out there.

In: Physics

8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The question is what can we see or not see. What we see from space is based on energy effectively. Particles that have enough energy to emit gamma rays to something so little we are in the radioaves. The larger the difference from the cosmic backround radiation the easier it is to see. When looking at thongs that are really cold you have a hard time telling the signal (object(s)) from the noise (cosmic background radiation). 

So while in the labs we have sensors that can detect far colder temperatures (current world record is 0.000000000038k) the boomerang nebula (you were think of) is a balmy 1K. K is the unit of measurement called kelvin. It has the same energy per unit as celcius (C). Just zero degrees C is shift up about 273.15 degrees K as that is the point when water freezes. 

Could there be colder objects in the universe than the boomera ge nebual? Possibly. They will not be easy to find. Both based on our technology. And the fact where we live (on Earth and in the solar system) is a rather loud place from an electro-magnetic wavelegth or energy persoective. But the limits of what we can build here. Ine day we likely will be able to build radio telescopes that make what we have here look like a jome on the fringes of the solar system and in a quieter place further from the sun and see more than we do now. Who knows what we will see then. Sadly i will not be here during that fascinating time. 

You are viewing 1 out of 8 answers, click here to view all answers.