NASA will create Bose-Einstein condensates in the microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station, where they can last for longer periods of time:
This summer, an ice chest-sized box will fly to the International Space Station, where it will create the coolest spot in the universe. [...] Its instruments are designed to freeze gas atoms to a mere billionth of a degree above absolute zero. That's more than 100 million times colder than the depths of space.
[...] NASA has never before created or observed Bose-Einstein condensates in space. On Earth, the pull of gravity causes atoms to continually settle towards the ground, meaning they're typically only observable for fractions of a second.
But on the International Space Station, ultra-cold atoms can hold their wave-like forms longer while in freefall. That offers scientists a longer window to understand physics at its most basic level. Thompson estimated that CAL (Cold Atom Laboratory) will allow Bose-Einstein condensates to be observable for up to five to 10 seconds; future development of the technologies used on CAL could allow them to last for hundreds of seconds.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 07 2017, @06:02PM (1 child)
They'll just pack der beers in dere, eh, and when they pop them out, dere'll be condensates.
Hey, yah, buddywasisname dere: pass me one, eh?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday March 07 2017, @10:16PM
highly relevant to this thread [angryflower.com]