An international team of researchers was the first to create a Bose - Einstein condensate in outer space under zero gravity. This was announced in a press release on Phys.org.
Bose - Einstein condensate is a substance formed by bosons - particles that can be in the same quantum state. This distinguishes them from fermions (for example, electrons), which are subject to the Pauli exclusion principle.
This property allows bosons at ultra-low temperatures to exhibit quantum effects visible to the naked eye, such as superfluidity, in which quantum fluid can leak through cracks without friction. If a quantum liquid forms crystals, then such matter is called a superfluid solid (supersolid).
According to scientists, such a state of matter may be useful for creating supersensitive sensors capable of recording, for example, gravitational waves. However, obtaining a Bose - Einstein condensate in the presence of gravity is difficult, so scientists have tried to create it in free fall. The researchers created a compact electronic device capable of cooling rubidium-87 atoms to ultra-low temperatures, and delivered it to an altitude of 243 kilometers aboard a rocket.
The Bose - Einstein condensate was produced in 1.6 seconds. While the rocket was falling to Earth, the device managed to conduct 110 programmed experiments in six minutes.
Earlier, in August, it was reported that NASA scientists first created a Bose-Einstein condensate aboard the International Space Station (ISS) by cooling rubidium atoms to a temperature equal to one ten-millionth of a degree above absolute zero. This is about three degrees lower than the average temperature in outer space.