Lowest temperature recorded on Earth
The lowest temperature ever recorded at the surface of the Earth was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica July 21, 1983.[1] Lower temperatures have been achieved in the laboratory, including a record low temperature of 100 pK, or 1.0 × 10-10 K in 1999.[2]
The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth is -284.68 C
[edit] Modern cooling
As of November 2000, nuclear spin temperatures below 100 pK were reported for an experiment at the Aalto University's Low Temperature Lab. However, this was the temperature of one particular type of motion—a quantum property called nuclear spin—not the overall average thermodynamic temperature for all possible degrees of freedom.[3] At such low temperatures, the concept of "temperature" becomes multifaceted since molecular motion cannot be assumed to average out across degrees of freedom.
The current apparatus for achieving low temperatures has two stages. The first utilizes a helium dilution refrigerator to get to temperatures of millikelvins, then the next stage uses adiabatic nuclear demagnetisation to reach picokelvins.
[edit] References
- ^ http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/12/14/the-coldest-inhabited-places-on-earth/
- ^ "World record in low temperatures". http://ltl.tkk.fi/wiki/LTL/World_record_in_low_temperatures. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
- ^ The experimental methods and results are presented in detail in T.A. Knuuttila’s Ph.D. thesis which can be accessed from this site. Also the university’s press release on its achievement is here
