Scientists have observed the fifth state of matter in space for the first time, offering unprecedented insight that could help solve some of the quantum universe’s most intractable conundrums, a new report said. 

Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) have managed to create the fifth state of matter, which is also known as Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). 

The feat comes from physicists behind NASA’s $100-million Cold Atom Lab, which was launched to the ISS in June 2018. 

What is Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC)?

As early as 1924 the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose carried out a statistical calculation for the kind of particles which have since come to bear his name, bosons, and more specifically light particles later termed photons. Bose presented an alternative derivation for the radiation law earlier found by Planck. 

Bose sent his work to Albert Einstein, who realised its importance. He translated it to German and had it published. Einstein rapidly extended the theory to cover Bose particles with mass and he himself published two articles in quick succession, predicting that when a given number of particles approach each other sufficiently closely and move sufficiently slowly they will together convert to the lowest energy state: what we now term Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) occurs.

BECs are formed when atoms of certain elements are cooled to near absolute zero (0 Kelvin, minus 273.15 Celsius). At this point, the atoms become a single entity with quantum properties, wherein each particle also functions as a wave of matter. BECs straddle the line between the macroscopic world governed by forces such as gravity and the microscopic plane, ruled by quantum mechanics.

Scientists believe BECs contain vital clues to mysterious phenomena such as dark energy — the unknown energy thought to be behind the universe’s accelerating expansion.

But BECs are extremely fragile. The slightest interaction with the external world is enough to warm them past their condensation threshold.

This makes them nearly impossible for scientists to study on Earth, where gravity interferes with the magnetic fields required to hold them in place for observation.

Ever since publication of this pioneering work, physicists have wished to be able to achieve this new fundamental state of matter, which was expected to have many interesting and useful properties. Seventy years later, Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle and Carl E. Wieman, using very advanced methods, finally managed to do this in 1995. The state was achieved in alkali atom gases, in which the phenomenon can be studied in a very pure manner. Nowhere else in the universe can one find the extreme conditions which BEC in dilute gases represents. 

The trio won the Nobel for Physics in 2001 for their work. 

What is Cold Atom Lab?

The Cold Atom Lab (CAL) is the first facility in orbit to produce clouds of “ultracold” atoms, which can reach a fraction of a degree above absolute zero: -273 degrees Celsius, the absolute coldest temperature that matter can reach. Nothing in nature is known to hit the temperatures achieved in laboratories like CAL, which means the orbiting facility is regularly the coldest known spot in the universe.

An experiment in space

A team of NASA scientists unveiled the first results from BEC experiments aboard the ISS, where particles can be manipulated free from Earthly constraints.

“Microgravity allows us to confine atoms with much weaker forces, since we don't have to support them against gravity,” Robert Thompson from the California Institute for Technology, Pasadena, said.

The research published in the journal Nature documents several startling differences in the properties of BECs created on Earth and those aboard the ISS.

For one thing, BECs in terrestrial labs typically last a handful of milliseconds before dissipating.

Aboard the ISS the BECs lasted more than a second, offering the team an unprecedented chance to study their properties.

Microgravity also allowed the atoms to be manipulated by weaker magnetic fields, speeding their cooling and allowing clearer imaging.

Research team leader David Aveline said that studying BECs in microgravity opened up a host of research opportunities. “Applications range from tests of general relativity and searches for dark energy and gravitational waves to spacecraft navigation and prospecting for subsurface minerals on the moon and other planetary bodies,” he said.

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