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| Stages of BEC Formation (NIST photo) |
Next time someone asks, “What’s
the matter?,” you’ll have to
think it over a bit more carefully. That’s because a fifth state of matter
has recently been created aboard the International Space Station.
Astronaunts there produced “Bose-Einstein condensates.” These occur when “atoms clump together" at "absolute zero (-459.67 F).” The atoms then form “a single entity with
quantum properties.”
Gravity generally
disrupts the stability of this matter. It is therefore far easier for Bose-Einstein
condensates (BEC) to persist within the microgravity
of the International Space Station.
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