Expedition 61 Flight Engineer Christina Koch handles science hardware stowed inside a cargo transfer bag retrieved from the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship.
iss061e068045 (Dec. 9, 2019) — NASA astronaut and Expedition 61 Flight Engineer Christina Koch handles science hardware stowed inside a cargo transfer bag retrieved from the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. The hardware is part of the the Cold Atom Laboratory that produces clouds of atoms that are chilled to about one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero — much colder than the average temperature of deep space. At these low temperatures, atoms have almost no motion, allowing scientists to study fundamental behaviors and quantum characteristics that are difficult or impossible to probe at higher temperatures.