What are Some Subzero Temperatures?
The lowest possible temperature is 0 Kelvin (-459.67 °F, -273.15 °C), abbreviated 0 K. While attaining exactly 0 K is thermodynamically impossible, extremely low temperatures have been achieved in the lab using a combination of laser cooling and evaporative cooling. MIT holds the current record, 450 pK (petaKelvins), or 4.5 × 10-10 K, which was announced in September 2003. The Helsinki University of Technology’s Low Temperature Lab achieved a nuclear spin temperature of 100 pK, but this pertains only to the nuclear spin and not all thermodynamic degrees of freedom. Science has been engaged in subzero temperature research primarily since the advent of modern refrigeration in the mid-19th century. It is thought that about 800 million years ago, the majority of the planet was covered in subzero temperatures, giving rise to a planet-wide icecap sometimes called “Snowball Earth”. As recently as 10,000 years ago, a planetary Ice Age was still in effect, known as the Wisconsin glaciation. Thi
The lowest possible temperature is 0 Kelvin (-459.67 °F, -273.15 °C), abbreviated 0 K. While attaining exactly 0 K is thermodynamically impossible, extremely low temperatures have been achieved in the lab using a combination of laser cooling and evaporative cooling. MIT holds the current record, 450 pK (petaKelvins), or 4.5 × 10-10 K, which was announced in September 2003. The Helsinki University of Technology’s Low Temperature Lab achieved a nuclear spin temperature of 100 pK, but this pertains only to the nuclear spin and not all thermodynamic degrees of freedom. Science has been engaged in subzero temperature research primarily since the advent of modern refrigeration in the mid-19th century. It is thought that about 800 million years ago, the majority of the planet was covered in subzero temperatures, giving rise to a planet-wide icecap sometimes called “Snowball Earth”. As recently as 10,000 years ago, a planetary Ice Age was still in effect, known as the Wisconsin glaciation.
