Rubidium atoms used to record coldest temperature — ever

Atomic gas cooled to 0.00000000005 degrees Celsius above absolute zero

concentration of rubidium atoms

CLUMPED AND COLD  Stanford University physicists used images like this one, which depicts the concentration of rubidium atoms, to determine that they had cooled the atoms to a record-low temperature.

T. Kovachy et al/Physical Review Letters 2015

A swarm of atoms in a Stanford lab has become the coldest stuff on Earth.