A Recipe for Cooling Atoms to Almost Absolute Zero

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab aboard the International Space Station cools atoms down to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, or the temperature at which atoms should stop moving entirely. Nowhere in the universe are there atoms that reach this temperature naturally. But how do scientists accomplish this feat? It’s a three-step process that starts with scientists hitting the atoms with precisely-tuned lasers to slow them down.

[OreNoObentou]

Feels like they missed an equals sign there.
10^-3 K = 1 mK
10^-6 K = 1 μK
10^-9 K = 1 nK

10^-9 nK = 10^-18 K = 1 aK (attokelvin)
Which, as far as I know, we're nowhere close to achieving.

Otherwise, nice visualization of the three techniques.

[matel]

OK, what do they do with it after it's cooled? There's gotta be some cool reason for doing it everyday

[hedz]

Are you kidding me? I had no idea we could get that low. 😱😱😱 Amazing.

[zackery]

How do you measure the position and direction of atoms in the first place so that you can move them in the opposite direction? Wouldn't the laser beam be hitting multiple atoms at once, each with their own unique movement?

[haddow]

I wonder, with how the laser in the cooling method by using specific frequencies attuned to specific atoms, could it be used in other applications?
For instance, if a frequency of laser light is matched to the frequency of a specific atom, will it, instead of cooling it, give it a push, like the laser is applying a direction pressure on just a specific atom? For instance, if it did apply a pressure, would it be possible to use a certain laser to push all of a certain type of atom in a specific direction, even possibly to cause it to force other atoms out and concentrate?
Also, could the cooling possibly be used to do a similar thing? For instance, to separate a gas out of an air supply, would it be possible to use an attuned laser to cool a single gas in mixed gas supply, this allowing it to become dense enough to settle and displace other gases? A possible way of separating gases out without having to super compress them down?
Just some ideas that floated through my head way too late at night.

[ZennExile]

I beg to differ. You can absolutely feel the sun beating down on you in the hot Phoenix summer. It's like a blanket of laser beams making you just a few micro-grams heavier.

[ripalpancholi]

This will be my Phd topic!!! THANKS NASA

[couchkartoffel]

10^-3 mK confuses me. It looks as if the SI prefix has been duplicated

[henryrong]

How does JPL even measure the temperature of the atoms at this scale? Can it be done without interfering with the temperature?

[michaelmcmurray]

Nice work - looks like the output signal component for a workable quantum processing (super computer).

[shaggygoooxide]

Nice work! This is really exciting. Next step... zero-g atom interferometry?

[jansenart]

I've never seen "meters per second" expressed as "MPS".

[hemrajmeena]

the sole purpose of this lab, is to study the state of matter that is not found anywhere else in the universe, it was all theoretically predicted by S.N. BOSE& Einstein .
If we achieve this state we can study the behaviour of atoms, that will further help us to understand atoms more deeply, like quantum gravity and all this will practically help us to build more efficient Quantum Computers .

I hope u know about Quantum Computer😅

[shanubiswas]

Really cool way to visualize it...
Bt 1:34 1 thousandth of degree = 10^(-3) mk
2:22 1 millionth of k = 10^(-6) µk
2:58 1 nano k = 10^(-9) nk 😢

[JoFreddieRevDr]

Follow NASA JPL for more cool recipes.

[zimperch]

Okay, you are cooling it to a nanokelvin every day, SO WHAT? You said you learn something new when you go to this temperature. What do you learn by that, can you tell us?

[Kevin_Kennelly]

It's still not as cold as the cold cold heart of my cheatin' ex-girlfriend.
Thanks JPL. You folks are my heroes.

[dalisemeyers]

Then how is light pollution affecting space now then?

[JogSottot]

- We managed to cool things down to nano K
- That's magnificent! How you plan to use it?
- "Use"? What's that?

[jamminmandmband]

Any practical use for cooling an atom? Or are you just doing it because you can?