TO CLOSE

Your average thermometer is not even close to being able to read this temperature.
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The snow blows in a campsite near the Vostok train station during the Antarctic summer.(Photo: Ted Scambos, NSIDC / University of Colorado-Boulder.)

The coldest place in the world is even colder than we thought, scientists reported this week in a new study.

Temperatures in an Antarctic region can go as low as 144 degrees below zero during the southern polar night, mostly in July and August, according to the study. The readings were not official measurements made with a real thermometer, but were estimates made by instruments on board a satellite in orbit.

Previously, scientists had thought that temperatures could "only" drop to about 135 below.

The study area, the East Antarctic Plateau, is so cold because of its high altitude and its proximity to the South Pole. It is the coldest climate of all regions of the planet.

The lowest air temperature ever measured on the planet Earth by an official weather instrument, 128.6 degrees below zero, was recorded in this area, at what was then the Vostok station of the Soviet Union in July 1983.

"In this region, we see incredibly dry air periods, allowing the surface heat to radiate more easily into space," said Ted Scambos, Senior Researcher at the National Data Center. on snow and ice. author of the new study.

According to the researchers, temperatures of 144 degrees below zero are about as cold as possible on the surface of the Earth. In order for the temperature to fall so low, clear skies and dry air must persist for several days. Temperatures could drop a bit more if conditions lasted several weeks, but this is extremely unlikely, Scambos said.

The study appeared in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

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