The Top 5 coldest places in the universe

Yes, it’s downright cold, even for the hardiest of souls. There’s no doubt that most of Canada has been suffering through some bitterly frigid weather over the past few weeks.

But if you think we’ve got it cold here, this is nothing compared to what can be encountered across the cosmos.

Here are some the coldest places scientists have ever studied.

ANTARCTICA: -94.7 C

Just to put things into perspective, the coldest air temperature ever recorded on our planet Earth is -89.2 C at Russia’s Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983. However, even this record might have unofficially been broken in August 2010, when a NASA Earth observation satellite recorded that east Antarctica one day hit a mind-numbing temperature of -94.7 C. But this won’t make it into the Guinness Book of World Records because the measurements weren’t made with thermometers.

PLUTO: -229 C

When looking at our neighbouring worlds in the solar system, the planets farthest from our sun sport some of the coldest temperatures. And taking the prize as the coldest is little old Pluto. On average, it is estimated that on this frozen world’s surface it can go down to -229 C.

Recently demoted to dwarf planet status, Pluto – which is about two-thirds the diameter of Earth’s moon – just doesn’t have the internal temperatures like other planets in our solar system to generate any heat.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: -240 C

First it was booted out of the major planet club, and now it seems Pluto has even lost the record for the coldest place in the solar system. As of 2009, research shows that the title now goes to permanently shadowed craters on the south pole of Earth’s own moon.

At the bottom of some craters, where the sun never gets to shine due to tall cliffs along their rims that block light, it can stay a constant -240 C. Believe it or not, that’s about 10 degrees colder than Pluto!

NASA is looking at these dark craters as possible sites for water ice reservoirs that could be exploited by future lunar bases.

THE BOOMERANG NEBULA: -272 C

Looking beyond our solar system, the coldest natural place in the universe we have found so far turns out to be within our very own Milky Way galaxy. A weird-looking cosmic cloud known as the Boomerang Nebula, a gaseous remnant of a dying star, takes the prize.

Sitting about 5,000 light years from Earth, the Boomerang was discovered recently to have all the previous cosmic destinations beat, clocking in at -272 C. That is only 1.1 C warmer than absolute zero – the coldest possible temperature according to the laws of physics. At absolute zero all thermal activity of atoms theoretically comes to a complete halt.

THE COLD ATOM LAB: −273.15

The very coldest place in the known Universe will soon be beaten – not in a distant, far-off galaxy or space between the stars, but in a small spot in Earth’s orbit on the International Space Station.

NASA researchers are planning to create the very coldest spot in the entire universe in the Cold Atom Lab, an atomic refrigerator launching next year. This experiment will allow physicists to study quantum mechanics – the strange rules that govern light and matter at atomic scales – like never before.

By letting the temperatures in this device fall to within 100 pico-Kelvin or 100-trillionth of a degree above absolute zero, this device will produce temperatures colder than anything we have found even in nature.