What Was the Hottest Thing Ever?

TL;DR

The hottest things in the universe include an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, the intracluster medium in galaxy clusters, and the moment after the Big Bang.

Transcript

The universe is filled with plenty of hot things, from volcanoes to supernovas. But some things are hotter than others — and something has to hold the record for “hottest thing ever”, right? It turns out that it’s sort of hard to figure out what the hottest thing ever is, though. Because depending on what you mean by “ever”, it could be an experime... Read More

Key Insights

• 😅 The experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, known as ALICE, produced the hottest temperature in recorded history, creating quark-gluon plasma at 5.5 trillion degrees Celsius.
• ◼️ The intracluster medium in galaxy clusters is extremely hot, reaching temperatures of up to 300 million degrees Celsius and maintained by energy released from black holes.
• 😅 The moment after the Big Bang, the universe was incredibly hot, potentially as hot as absolute hot, with temperatures of 1 followed by 32 zeroes degrees Celsius.
• ❓ The LHC is a crucial resource for recreating the conditions of the early universe and studying extreme temperatures.
• 🖐️ Quark-gluon plasma played a significant role in the formation of larger particles during the cooling of the early universe.
• ◼️ The intracluster medium retains its high temperature due to the continuous energy release from black holes.
• 🥺 The universe's expansion allowed for the cooling of extreme temperatures, leading to the formation of atoms and, eventually, everything known today.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did scientists at the LHC experiment create a fireball of quark-gluon plasma?

Scientists accelerated heavy lead ions close to the speed of light and smashed them together, generating a fireball that momentarily melted the ions into quark-gluon plasma.

Q: Why is the intracluster medium in galaxy clusters so hot?

The intracluster medium retains its heat due to energy produced during the formation of stars, galaxies, and planets, as well as energy released by black holes sucking in matter.

Q: What caused the universe to reach extremely high temperatures during the moment after the Big Bang?

The universe was incredibly hot because all matter and energy were compressed into an infinitely dense point, resulting in immense pressure and heat.

Q: What is the concept of absolute hot?

Absolute hot is the opposite of absolute zero, the lowest possible temperature. While there is no precise value for absolute hot, some physicists speculate it could be around 1032 degrees Celsius.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment in 2012 created a fireball of quark-gluon plasma, reaching a temperature of 5.5 trillion degrees Celsius.

• The intracluster medium in galaxy clusters can reach temperatures up to 300 million degrees Celsius, sustained by black holes at the centers of galaxies.

• The moment after the Big Bang, the universe was potentially as hot as absolute hot, reaching temperatures of 1 followed by 32 zeroes degrees Celsius.