Record-Breaking Cold: East Antarctica Temperatures Plunge to a Staggering -98°C (-144.4°F)
East Antarctica – New analysis of satellite data reveals that the coldest naturally occurring temperatures on Earth reach a bone-chilling -98°C (-144.4°F), surpassing the previously recorded low of -89.2°C (-128.6°F) at Russia’s Vostok Station in 1983.Researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data center at the University of Colorado at Boulder made the discovery while examining data collected between 2004 and 2016.
The extreme cold is concentrated on the highest parts of the East Antarctic Plateau, at elevations between 3,800 and 4,050 meters (12,467 to 13,287 feet) above sea level. These “ultracold conditions” are also found to occur more frequently during periods of a strong Antarctic polar vortex – a swirling mass of powerful wind that encircles the continent, effectively trapping frigid air.
While these temperatures are a product of natural atmospheric processes, scientists have also achieved even colder temperatures in laboratory settings. Absolute zero, the theoretical limit of cold at -273.15°C (-459.67°F) or 0 kelvin, remains unattainable according to the third law of thermodynamics.However, researchers continue to push the boundaries of cold.
in 2021, a team of German scientists set a new record for the coldest temperature ever created, reaching 38 picokelvins – incredibly close to absolute zero. This was achieved by dropping quantum matter – approximately 100,000 rubidium atoms – down a 110-meter (360-foot) drop tower.The atoms where first loaded into a magnetic trap, squeezed into a Bose-Einstein condensate (a state where atoms behave as a single particle-wave), and then released to expand and cool further during the two-second fall.
At such temperatures, atomic movement is minimal, and the conventional laws of physics yield to the strange principles of quantum mechanics. While not a temperature humans would “feel” as cold, it represents a important achievement in the pursuit of understanding the fundamental limits of the universe.
