Chinese scientists have created the coldest known artificial matter aboard China's space station, setting a new record for the lowest equivalent temperature achieved by humans. Using the ultracold atom physics facility in the station's Mengtian lab module, the research team cooled a cloud of rubidium atoms to an equivalent temperature of just 9.7 picokelvins, close to absolute zero.

The cloud's expansion was observed for seven seconds, opening new possibilities for quantum physics research and precision measurements. The findings were published in the journal Science on November 6.