Moon 'has solar system's coldest place'

[glenc]

"NASA found that at the moon's south pole, it's colder than far away Pluto.The area is inside craters that are permanently shadowed so they never see sun.
Temperatures there were measured at minus 238 Celsius below zero. That's just 2 Celsius higher than the lowest temperature possible."
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/864731/moon-has-solar-systems-coldest-place
(I thought absolute zero was -273C.)

[renormalised]

Absolute zero (-273.15C) is the lowest temp possible, but you can't hold that against ninemsn...I mean, none of them have a clue about science. Geez, they're journalist, for heaven's sake:P:D

Interesting article, though.

[mithrandir]

There are few more clueless people than the ordinary reporters on commercial TV. Mid-west and south-west American politicians are the first to come to mind.

[renormalised]

There are very few of them (politicians) who have a good grounding in anything but their own fields, which is usually law, business, economics and BS:D

There was a report on Lateline (ABC 10:30pm) last Thursday about just how clueless politicians, journalists and the general public are about science. It's the main reason why nonsense like creationism and such is creeping into education, political policy and such (especially in the US).

[Baron von Richthofen]

actually there wrong, back ground temperature of space is 3 K or -270.15 C
That means you cant go lower than that

[glenc]

Lowest observed temperatures
The average background temperature of the Universe today is 2.73 Kelvin, but it has spatial fluctuations. For example, the Boomerang Nebula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomerang_Nebula) has been spraying out gas at a speed of 500,000 km/h (over 300,000 mph) for the last 1,500 years. That has cooled it down to 1 K, as deduced by astronomical observation. This might be the lowest natural temperature recorded.
Much lower temperatures, however, can be achieved in the laboratory. The current (May 2009) world record was set in 1999 at 100 picokelvin by cooling a piece of rhodium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodium) metal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_zero#Lowest_observed_tempe ratures

World record in low temperatures
Researchers of the YKI-group of the Low Temperature Laboratory have recently achieved the lowest temperature ever produced.
The record-low temperature was reached in a piece of rhodium metal, which was cooled to 100 pK, or 0.000 000 000 1 degrees above the absolute zero. Absolute zero is the limit of all temperatures, —273.15... C, a temperature one can never reach.
http://ltl.tkk.fi/wiki/LTL/World_record_in_low_temperatures

[pgc hunter]

They should name this crater "New Melbourne".

Oh wait, they have clear skies 24/7/365. But atleast the temperature is comparable to the existing "Melbourne".

[pgc hunter]

lol but out of those things, BS is the only thing polititians are actually "competent" at.

[FredSnerd]

Actually the lowest temperature ever reached anywhere in the universe was here in Canberra on 17 june this year. It was ******* cold.