The copper cube was cooled to as much as -273.144 degrees Celsius (0.006 kelvin), kept there for 15 days

Oct 24, 2014 09:19 GMT  ·  By

Earlier this week, scientists with the National Nuclear Physics Institute in Italy announced to the world that they had managed to cool a copper cube to near absolute zero.

The cube-shaped copper vessel, which measured 1 cubic meter (a little over 35 cubic feet) in volume and tipped the scale at about 400 kilograms (approximately 880 pounds), was cooled to as much as -273.144 degrees Celsius (0.006 kelvin).

A new world record

Just to put things into perspective, it need be said that absolute zero is considered to be -273.15 degrees Celsius (0 kelvin). So yes, these brainiacs came pretty darn close to cooling the copper cube to what is internationally recognized as the lowest temperature possible.

Interestingly enough, IFL Science tells us that the National Nuclear Physics Institute scientists behind this series of experiments did more than just cool the cubic copper vessel to near absolute zero. Thus, word has it they also kept it at this temperature for 15 consecutive days.

In doing so, the researchers managed to set a new world record for cold temperatures on a macroscopic object. What this means is that, for 15 days, the copper cube that these scientists toyed with was the coldest thing in the universe.

“It is the first experiment ever to cool a mass and a volume of this size to a temperature this close to absolute zero (0 kelvin). The cooled copper mass, weighing approx. 400 kg, was the coldest cubic meter in the universe for over 15 days.”

“No experiment on Earth has ever cooled a similar mass or volume to temperatures this low; similar conditions are also not expected to arise in Nature,” the researchers behind this series of experiments explained in a statement.

The how and the why

It is understood that, in order to cool the block of copper to near absolute zero, the National Nuclear Physics Institute scientists, together with colleagues from the US, China, Spain, France, and several other countries, placed it inside a special container known as a cryostat.

“The CUORE cryostat is the only one of its kind in the world, not only in terms of its dimensions, extreme temperatures, and cooling power, but also for the selected materials and for the building techniques that both guarantee very low levels of radioactivity,” they detailed.

In case anyone was wondering, these experiments were not carried out because the National Nuclear Physics Institute researchers and their colleagues were desperate to get their 15 minutes of fame.

On the contrary, it is expected that this research project will allow specialists to observe a hypothesized rare process, i.e. double-beta decay, which might explain why our universe packs more matter than it does anti-matter.