• Question: what is othe coldest thing you have ever seen/touched?

    Asked by isobelmariko to Steven on 14 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 14 Jun 2015:

      The coldest thing I’ve ever touched in our lab is liquid nitrogen, which has a temperature of -196C. The coldest natural place on Earth, for comparison, is around -90C, so I’ve touched something 100C colder than the coldest place on Earth.

      I didn’t touch it for very long, about half a second – any more than that and I would have frozen my hand off!

      The coldest thing I’ve ever seen in our lab is liquid helium, which has a temperature of -269C. Now that’s colder than anywhere in the entire Solar System!

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