Their study used a sophisticated setup involving superconducting devices, known as traps, with magnetic fields, sensitive detectors and advanced vibration isolation. It measured a weak pull, just 30aN, on a tiny particle 0.43mg in size by levitating it in freezing temperatures a hundredth of a degree above absolute zero—about –273 degrees Celsius.

Good god, this sounds like a difficult experiment to pull off. Thirty atto-Newtons. You don't hear atto-anything very often.

[–] Dicska 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

One attoparsec is about 3cm.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No one uses attoparsecs any more than they use beard-seconds or Hubble-barns.

[–] Dicska 6 points 8 months ago

You made me look these up and they are hilarious. Thanks for making my day! Here are a few more on the same page, along with beard-seconds and Hubble-barns.

[–] Num10ck 6 points 8 months ago

as a rule of thumb: the diameter of a banana is about one attoparsec. the length of a banana is about one banana, for scale.

[–] niktemadur 2 points 8 months ago

You don't hear atto-anything very often.

But more and more often now, the previous Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to a team that produced laser pulses with duration measured in atto-seconds.