SPACE
Exotic fifth state of matter created on the space station
Words by Charles Q. Choi
The velocity-distribution data for gaseous rubidium atoms which confirmed the discovery of the Bose-Einstein condensate in 1995
© Alamy
Scientists have generated an exotic form of matter in the unique microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and are using it to explore the quantum world.
There are four states of matter common in everyday life: gases, liquids, solids and plasmas. However, there is also a fifth state of matter, Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), which scientists first created in the lab 25 years ago. When a group of atoms is cooled to near absolute zero the atoms begin to clump together, behaving as if they were one big ‘super-atom’.