ISS Ultracold Matter Experiment (IMAGE)

Georgia Institute of Technology

ISS Ultracold Matter Experiment

Caption

This is an artist's depiction of a NASA ultracold matter experiment that is to run on the International Space Station in 2018. The image does not show anything done in the study at Georgia Tech but serves to illustrate to the reader how intersecting lasers are used to trap atoms. Combined with other methods, the lasers also slow the atoms to a near stop, cooling them to temperatures near absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature in the universe. That cold, matter's wave characteristics become very visible.

Credit

NASA JPL

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