How close can we get to absolute zero?

At the new low temperature, it takes atoms half a minute to move a single inch. Scientists have gotten close to absolute zero before, but the new temperature is six times lower than the previous record. It's also the first time a gas has been cooled to below one nanokelvin, which is one billionth of a degree.Sep 11, 2003 read more

(As a side remark, energy in this instance means only the energy that can be taken away from the particles and does not include the rest mass or quantum mechanical zero-point energies for confined particles.) Absolute zero corresponds to –273 degrees Celsius and –460 degrees Fahrenheit. read more

An object's temperature is a measure of how much its atoms move — the colder an object is, the slower the atoms are. At the physically impossible-to-reach temperature of zero kelvin, or minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 degrees Celsius), atoms would stop moving. As such, nothing can be colder than absolute zero on the Kelvin scale. read more

There are all sorts of reasons to be curious about the limits of cold. Maybe you're an incredibly lame supervillain who uses the power of freezing, and you want to understand the extent of your powers. read more