Starship Asterisk*

The average temperature of the universe today is approximately 2.73 kelvins, based on measurements of cosmic microwave background radiation.

Nitpicker wrote:That is so not hot right now! But if we were to look at this from another point of view -- about 180 degrees around and 180 degrees lower, say -- we'd get to -273.15°C, or zero kelvins, or absolute zero. Clever scientists on Earth have managed to cool matter down so close to this temperature, that to everyday folk like me, calling it absolute zero would be 0K.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_zero

The average temperature of the universe today is approximately 2.73 kelvins, based on measurements of cosmic microwave background radiation.

Beyond wrote:Who,,, in his right, or left mind, would ever go to a place like that Even the 'cats' don't go there. Although i see they put 'man's best friend' to work, sifting through records.

Beyond wrote: Kelvins<---s I didn't know there was more than one Kelvin.

timgregg wrote:Are those elevations in feet or in meters?

Nitpicker wrote:
Correction: almost all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ter_people

Nitpicker wrote:
The highest elevation in Antarctica is almost 5000m, at Vinson Massif in western Antarctica, although that area is not nearly as vast as the eastern ice shelf.

According to this link, if you don't consider the ice, the highest elevation in Antarctica is less than 3000m:
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartne ... l-the-ice/

neufer wrote:Raylly? Are you trying to Mach nitpicker?

neufer wrote:

Nitpicker wrote:
The highest elevation in Antarctica is almost 5000m, at Vinson Massif in western Antarctica, although that area is not nearly as vast as the eastern ice shelf.

According to this link, if you don't consider the ice, the highest elevation in Antarctica is less than 3000m:
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartne ... l-the-ice/

You mean the highest in eastern Antarctica

Nitpicker wrote:

neufer wrote:

Nitpicker wrote:
The highest elevation in Antarctica is almost 5000m, at Vinson Massif in western Antarctica, although that area is not nearly as vast as the eastern ice shelf.

According to this link, if you don't consider the ice, the highest elevation in Antarctica is less than 3000m:
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartne ... l-the-ice/

You mean the highest in eastern Antarctica

No, western. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinson_Massif

orin stepanek wrote:
The coldest place on Earth? I wouldn't go there! There is enough cold here in Nebraska!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#Atmosphere wrote:
<<Pluto's atmosphere consists of a thin envelope of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide gases, which are derived from the ices of these substances on its surface. Its surface pressure ranges from 6.5 to 24 μbar. Pluto's elongated orbit is predicted to have a major effect on its atmosphere: as Pluto moves away from the Sun, its atmosphere should gradually freeze out, and fall to the ground. When Pluto is closer to the Sun, the temperature of Pluto's solid surface increases, causing the ices to sublimate into gas. This creates an anti-greenhouse effect; much as sweat cools the body as it evaporates from the surface of the skin, this sublimation cools the surface of Pluto. Scientists using the Submillimeter Array have recently discovered that Pluto's temperature is about 43 K (−230 °C), 10 K colder than would otherwise be expected.

The presence of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, in Pluto's atmosphere creates a temperature inversion, with average temperatures 36 K warmer 10 km above the surface. The lower atmosphere contains a higher concentration of methane than its upper atmosphere.>>

Messican wrote:
Now take some real thermometers there and see if it's valid. That would make Guinness records happy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_weather_records wrote:
<<World Record highest temperature ever recorded: 56.7 °C (134 °F) : Furnace Creek Ranch, in Death Valley, California, United States, 1913-07-10. The former highest official temperature on Earth, held for 90 years by ‘Aziziya, Libya, was de-certified by the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) in January 2012 as the record for the world's highest surface temperature (this temperature of 57.8 °C (136 °F), registered on September 13, 1922, is currently considered to have been a recorder's error. [On 16 January 1889, a temperature of 53 °C (128 °F) was recorded at Cloncurry, Queensland. It was measured with a non-standard thermometer, so it is unknown if this reading was valid or not. The reading is not recognised by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.] There are a few reports of temperatures higher than 56.7 °C during phenomena known as heat bursts, including a report of 87 °C (188 °F) in Abadan, Iran in June 1967. These temperatures have never been confirmed, and are not recognized as world records.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasht-e_Lut wrote:

---

<<Dasht-e Lut (Persian: کویر لوت‎, "Emptiness Desert"), also spelled Dasht-i-Lut and known as the Lut Desert, is a large salt desert in southeastern Kerman Iran and is the world's 25th largest desert. Measurements of MODIS (Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) installed on NASA's satellite "Aqua" from 2003 to 2005 testify that the hottest land surface on Earth is located in Dasht-e Lut and land surface temperatures reach here 70.7 °C (159.3 °F), though the air temperature is cooler. Precision of measurements is 0.5 K to 1 K. The hottest part of Dasht-e Lut is Gandom Beryan, a large plateau covered in dark lava, approximately 480 square kilometres in area.According to a local legend, the name (in translation from Persian — "Toasted wheat") originates from an accident where a load of wheat was left in the desert and was eventually scorched by the heat in a few days.>>

CuriousJeff wrote:
My understanding is that CO2 freezes at one atmosphere and -80 C. Was any frozen CO2 observed at this location?

biddie67 wrote:
It seems that from the South Pole, every point is "north". If "west" is to one's right when looking at a map facing northward, Antarctica's "west" would change as one turned around ... As silly as it sounds, how did West and East Antarctica get their names?

• It was an occidental coincidence:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Antarctica wrote:
<<The Western Hemisphere or occidental hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the Antimeridian, the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere, or "oriental hemisphere". West Antarctica, or Lesser Antarctica, one of the two major regions of Antarctica, is the part of the continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere including the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains and is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The name has existed for more than 100 years (Balch, 1902; Nordenskiöld, 1905), but its greatest use followed the International Geophysical Year (1957–58) and explorations disclosing that the Transantarctic Mountains provide a useful regional separation of West Antarctica and East Antarctica. The name was approved by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in 1962.>>