SCIENTISTS have found and quantified the most extreme end of the temperature spectrum.
The hottest achievable temperature existed in nature for just a brief moment at the onset of the Big Bang.
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Everyone remembers touching something hot for the first time – a stove top, a grill, etc.
Quickly, we learn to respect hot surfaces and our understanding of the temperature spectrum changes on the spot.
People often interact with temperature flashpoints like the degree at which water boils or freezes.
Looking a grander scale, scientists found the hottest conceivable temperature – and its significantly hotter than the Sun at 141 million million million million million degrees.
When studying extreme temperatures, researchers often use a scale called Kelvin – its a unit that measures the amount of kinetic energy in a substance.
Kinetic energy is the motion in atoms – with heat there is a lot of motion and cold there is less movement.
Zero degrees Kelvin is what scientists call “absolute zero”.
Absolute zero is the full absence of motion in particles and it is theoretically impossible to reach – though we’ve gotten close.
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On the other end of the Kelvin scale is Planck temperature – at 141 million million million million million degrees its the most amount of kinetic energy that can be put into a system without breaking gravity and extending into an unknown realm of physics.
While scientists have come within one billionth of a degree of absolute zero, reaching the Planck temperature may take an intervention of a higher power.
When the Big Bang occurred, all of the matter in the universe was packed together to a space smaller than a proton.
There was enough chaos and collision for the particles to briefly reach the Planck temperature as the universe was being born – it’s unlikely these conditions repeat themselves, or if they do, that we observe it.
The work that physicists are doing shows how delicate livable temperatures are.
Temperature has a large spectrum with very different behaviors on either end, and humans are lucky enough to have a world that’s situated at the right climate.
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