NASA Engineered a Box to Create the Fifth State of Matter in Space

Atomic physicists at NASA are working to create an exotic state of matter...in space. And it turns out, the International Space Station is the perfect home base for these experiments.

NASA’s new quantum lab is studying a bizarre and rare form of matter called Bose-Einstein condensates… and it’s doing it in space! We went inside the NASA control room that’s running these experiments to talk to the scientists behind this quest to probe the universe's biggest mysteries.

The Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) is a multi-user facility that is operating aboard the ISS producing Bose-Einstein condensates, which are clouds of ultra-cooled atoms, to perform quantum physics experiments in microgravity.

The space lab (designed and built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory) operates when the astronauts aboard the ISS are asleep and is engineered to trap gas atoms, cooling them to temperatures just barely above absolute zero. It is here, in this level of cold, that the Bose-Einstein condensates come into existence.

Find out more about the Cold Atom Lab; why microgravity is so important when it comes to creating the coldest things; and how this ultracool state of matter comes to fruition in space on this episode of Focal Point.

00:00 Bose-Einstein condensate
00:47 Coldest spots in the known universe
01:35 Quantum mechanics
02:11 Satyendra Nath Bose
02:42 Using lasers to cool atoms
03:56 Putting a lab in space
05:03 Cold atom physics
05:40 Orbital ATK CRS-9 Launch
07:00 Atom interferometer
07:32 Einstein’s equivalence principle

#NASA #Physics #Quantum #FocalPoint #Science #Seeker

Read More:

The Coldest Spot in the Universe
“The quest for ever colder temperatures has been a major theme of physics for over a century, leading to such breakthroughs such as the discovery of superfluidity and superconductivity, and more recently to the development of laser cooling techniques and the observation of dilute atomic-gas Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC) and super-fluid Fermi gases.”

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab (CAL): system development and ground test status
“This unique facility will enable novel ultracold atom research to be remotely performed by an international group of principle investigators with broad applications in fundamental physics and inertial sensing.”

NASA Is Launching a Box of Lasers to Make the Coldest Spot In the Universe
“The Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) is a physics research facility the size of an ice chest, designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, that will chill clouds of atoms with lasers and magnets aboard the space station to this ultracold temperature — close to absolute zero, or the lowest temperature possible.”

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[gabnolan]

It's crazy to think that some people are testing those quantum theories in space while some still believe the earth is flat.

[khwistal]

Honestly at this point I don’t understand how anyone couldn’t be into science?? There’s nothing more interesting

[arasb]

The more we learn, the more we realize how much MORE there is to learn.

[xxnotmuchxx]

Increase temperature: use lasers
Decrease temperature: use lasers

[ridnvii]

Imagine working there and having to explain to your grandparents what your job is about.

[martinfromstrufve]

im 19 now, and i've been watching these space, future science videoes for a while now, and I can't wait till i'm in the age of like 70 or 80 to see how far we've come... That's literally what i'm looking forward to in life.

[batmeme]

Teacher: There's only 3, no 4 states of matter right now...

Me: *THERE IS ANOTHER*

[ar_X_]

Can we take a second to appreciate the quality content of this video!!!

[Morbpious]

teacher: students there are *four* states of matter

Guy in the lower left of the class: *ACKSHUALLLY*

[DudeWhoSaysDeez]

Me, not understanding any of this: "dang, thats crazy"

[TheGamingGrape]

Solid
Liquid
Gas
Plasma


*BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATE*

[elchupacabra]

0:50

"There's nothing in the natural world that wants to be ultra cold"

lol tell that to my ex wife

[franktg]

"This is sort of been my baby."
"It was something that was amazing to go through."
"And wonderful to go through and you don't
want to do it again."
Dad jokes at its finest.

[Shadow__]

I also enjoy the headphones this Bose guy makes. Genius!

[riccardoesclapon]

8:22
them: "...the quantum nature of collisions..."
me: That cloud looks like a dinosaur

[mr.personhumanson]

This *Quantum Lab* makes *Exotic States of Matter* in *Space*


This is one of the most sciency title of a video ever

[ta]

"As a general rule, you should never bet against

[sapandream]

I m so overwhelmed by the way these ppl r dedicated their lifes to science ❤️❤️

[revenevan]

For anyone wondering about how or why cooling the atoms amplifies their wave nature, it has to do with the heisenberg uncertainty principle. As a particle's position is more precisely defined, it's momentum is less definable and vice versa. That isn't just a statement about our measurement techniques, but about how the universe works on a fundamental subatomic level. A quantum wave function is a probabilistic thing, but while uncollapsed (not forced into definition in a macroscopic system or intuitive way), the wave functions of different particles interfere, interact, and in the case of a Bose-Einstein condensate effectively merge.

Basically by cooling something to near absolute zero, you're defining its momentum to be more and more precisely close to zero. The heisenberg uncertainty principle tells us that the position becomes proportionally less precisely known/defined. This means that the wave functions of these atoms effectively "blur" in position since their momentums are so precisely controlled, making strange quantum interactions happen between them and forming the exotic state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate.

[bogatron]

I love hearing people with fifty pound brains solving these incredibly complex problems. Gives you hope that as idiocracy runs its course, there will still be some in humanity pushing us forward.