Space-Based Matter

Launching BECs

By blasting a miniature, experimental chip into space, scientists have created the first space-based Bose-Einstein condensate . The feat could allow for the more precise exploration of gravitational waves, dark matter, and add to our fundamental understanding of physics.Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are a state of matter in which a cloud of atoms is cooled until it’s very close to absolute zero. At this extremely low temperature, the atoms move very, very slowly, clump together and become physically identical. In this state, a clump of atoms behaves as if it were a single atom. BECs can be “treated as quantum mechanical objects,” says Maike Lachmann, a co-author of the study describing the space-based BEC from Leibniz University Hanover in an email.BECs were first created in a lab in the 1990s and have helped scientists to study and explore how atoms behave in quantum states. Now, a team of researchers has managed to make BECs in space, an environment that offers unique opportunities for discovery. It’s part of the Matter-Wave Interferometry in Microgravity (MAIUS-1) mission.This unique experiment will allow researchers to explore and test fundamental physics, Lachmann said. He also added that studies with BECs could also be used to “scan the gravitational field of the Earth,” and potentially even “for gravitational wave detection or for the search for dark matter.”So, aboard a sounding rocket, the team launched a miniaturized chip filled with rubidium-87 atoms. During the six-minute flight, the team was able to perform 80 experiments.