(Image source from: Business Insider)

The main wit behind NASA’s latest physics experiment to create coldest spot in the universe is Anita Gupta, an Indian-American that was launched early Tuesday.

Sengupta likewise been a key role in successfully landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars in 2012. At present, she is the V-P of Hyperloop One and had visited Mumbai in 2013.

The spot created by Cold Atom Laboratory will cool clouds of gas to a stunning 0.0000000001 degree Kelvin (100 picoKelvin) that is 10 billion times colder than the vacuum of space.

Cold Atom Laboratory flown to International Space Station by an Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops facility at Virginia. It could possibly lead to numerous technologies including sensors, quantum computers and atomic clocks utilized in spacecraft navigation, said NASA.

“CAL will make it possible to observe these ultra-cold atoms much longer in the microgravity environment,” the space agency stated.

Sengupta said “CAL will investigate the properties of Bose Einstein Condensate, a state of matter that only occurs just above absolute zero. The experiment, which took over five years to develop, will help one give new insight into the nature of the atom and early expansion of the universe. We have designed it to be modular, repairable and upgradable by astronauts on board the ISS and it can last for several years.”

She further said that the technology demonstrations are required for future space-based quantum sensors which enables more precise measurements of gravity, magnetic fields and in-space navigation.

By Sowmya Sangam