In 1904 Dutch scientist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes created a special lab in Leiden in the Netherlands with the aim of producing liquid helium.

This remains the record for a directly recorded temperature.įurther information: Absolute zero § History Early experiments The next world record low temperature was a reading of −88.3 ☌ (−126.9 ☏ 184.8 K), measured at the Soviet Vostok Station in 1968, on the Antarctic Plateau. The next reliable measurement was made during the 1957 season at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, yielding −73.6 ☌ (−100.5 ☏ 199.6 K) on 11 May and −74.5 ☌ (−102.1 ☏ 198.7 K) on 17 September. Soviet researchers later announced a recording of −67.7 ☌ (−89.9 ☏ 205.5 K) in February 1933 at Oymyakon, about 650 km (400 mi) to the south-east of Verkhoyansk this measurement was reported by Soviet texts through the 1940s as a record low, with the previous measurement from Verkhoyansk retroactively adjusted to −67.6 ☌ (−89.7 ☏ 205.6 K). A later measurement at the same place in February 1892 was reported as −69.8 ☌ (−93.6 ☏ 203.3 K). Wild reported that a temperature of −68 ☌ (−90 ☏ 205 K) was measured in Verkhoyansk. On 21 January 1838, a Russian merchant named Neverov recorded a temperature of −60 ☌ (−76 ☏ 213 K) in Yakutsk. Due to the very strong temperature gradient near the surface, these imply near-surface air temperature minima of approximately −94 ☌ (−137 ☏ 179 K). More recent work shows many locations in the high Antarctic where surface temperatures drop to approximately −98 ☌ (−144 ☏ 175 K). The temperature announced reflects that of the ice surface, while the Vostok readings measured the air above the ice, and so the two are not directly comparable.

The value is not listed as the record lowest temperature as it was measured by remote sensing from satellite and not by ground-based thermometers, unlike the 1983 record. The result was reported at the 46th annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in December 2013 it is a provisional figure, and may be subject to revision. The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is −89.2 ☌ (−128.6 ☏ 184.0 K) at the then-Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on 21 July 1983 by ground measurements. The location of Vostok Station in Antarctica

The coldest winter ever part 2