NASA will send an ice chest-sized box to the International Space Station (ISS), where the box will create the coolest spot in the universe, according to a release published Tuesday on NASA's website.
The box, named the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), is in the final stages of assembly and will be sent to the ISS this August.
Instruments inside the box will free gas atoms to one billionth of a degree above absolute zero. "That's more than 100 million times colder than the depths of space," said the release.
The unprecedented experiments with the box will help scientists solve some mysteries of the universe.
"Studying these hyper-cold atoms could reshape our understanding of matter and the fundamental nature of gravity," said CAL Project Scientist Robert Thompson in the release.
"The experiments we'll do with the CAL will give us insight into gravity and dark energy, some of the most pervasive forces in the universe," he said.
If the plan is carried out smoothly, the ISS will soon host the coldest spot in the entire universe.
Furthermore, these experiments may lead to several technological improvements in quantum computers and atomic clocks for spacecraft navigation.
