Nasa wants to create coldest spot in the Universe

Image source, NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image caption, An artist's image of what the cool box could look like

How about this for a brrr-illiant experiment? Nasa is planning to create the coldest spot in the Universe!

A box called the Cold Atom Laboratory is flying to the International Space Station this summer.

When it's there, it will freeze gas atoms to a billionth of a degree above absolute zero.

Absolute zero is -273.15C - it's the temperature that scientists agree is the lowest possible one.

It's more than 100 million times colder than the depths of space!

Image source, NASA

Image caption, The Cold Atom Laboratory is due to fly to the International Space Station this summer

The Cold Atom Laboratory contains instruments such as lasers, a vacuum chamber and an electromagnetic "knife".

They'll work together to cool and slow down the gas particles until they barely move.

The pull of gravity means that it's not possible to do this on Earth.

It's hoped the experiment could help with improving technologies, including sensors, computers and atomic clocks.