NASA Created Fifth State Of Matter Inside The International Space Station

There is a fifth state of matter wherein atoms get so cold that they almost stop moving and behaving like individual atoms. In this state, atoms act like a wave instead of individual particles. NASA has repeatedly managed to achieve this state of matter aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The breakthrough was achieved by NASA¡¯s Cold Atom Laboratory atop the ISS back in 2018 for the first time. This was also the first time that this state of matter was achieved in the lower Earth orbit.

In a recent video, NASA¡¯s Jet Propulsion Laboratory highlights the advantages of creating this state of matter in space. The video also sheds light on how the US space agency is able to achieve this state in space.

The fifth state of matter

(Image: NASA)

ALSO READ: Indian-Origin Scientist Creates Fifth State Of Matter From Home In COVID-19 Lockdown

Called a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), the unique state of matter was first achieved by scientists more than 25 years ago. The BEC is known to have extraordinary properties which are totally unlike solids, liquids, gases and plasmas. At the time of its discovery, the achievement garnered a Nobel Prize and changed physics as we know it for the generations to come.

BECs are used to make headway in quantum mechanics, the branch of physics that focuses on the behaviors of atoms and subatomic particles. Quantum mechanics is an integral part of many components in many modern technologies. An example of this is how cell phones and computers employ the wave nature of electrons in silicon.

Less challenges aboard the ISS

NASA Astronaut Christina Koch inside the Cold Atom Laboratory atop ISS (Image: NASA)

The Cold Atom Laboratory or the CAL aboard the ISS is a physics user facility. As per NASA, CAL produces clouds of ultra-cooled atoms (BECs), chilled to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. This temperature is even colder than the average temperature of deep space.

Through this method, the atoms in a BEC demonstrate quantum characteristics at relatively large size scales, allowing a better understanding to researchers. Such a production of BECs aboard the ISS has some advantages over their production on Earth.

A big challenge on Earth, for instance, is that these freely evolving BEC¡¯s are dragged down by the pull of gravity. So as soon as they are produced, they fall quickly to the floor of the chamber. This allows scientists only a fraction of a second to observe them.

The microgravity environment of the space station avoids this, as each freely evolving BEC ¡°can be observed for up to 10 seconds, which is longer than what¡¯s possible with any other existing BEC experiment,¡± says NASA. Within CAL, researchers have up to 6.5 hours of such experimentation time available each day.

(Image: NASA)

"With Cold Atom Lab, scientists can see their data in real time and make adjustments to their experiments on short notice," said Jason Williams, a member of the Cold Atom Lab science team at JPL. "That flexibility means we're able to learn quickly and address new questions as they arise."

Another big plus of producing BECs in CAL is that the facility in space is able to reach colder temperatures than Earth-bound laboratories. One way to reach such temperatures is to simply make the ultracold atom clouds slowly expand. The expansion causes the atoms to get even cooler. It is also easier to do in space as there is no gravity pulling atoms to the ground.

Now producing BECs for the last two years, CAL successfully concises the technology in massive structures on Earth into a small box-like structure. With experiments being conducted in it everyday, it is only a matter of time before the device is responsible for a major breakthrough.