Laser cooling and trapping allow scientists to study atoms with great accuracy. Photons from the lasers cool gases and keep atoms floating slowly in what is referred to as optical molasses. Laser interferometers take precise atomic measurements. Scientists can study properties of atoms and lifetimes of atoms after trapping them. A more precise atomic clock for space travel is one practical application of this technology. Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for their development and research on laser cooling and trapping.
Particle accelerators aid in exploring both atomic matter and energy. The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, is the largest accelerator in the world. It has an electromagnet that weighs almost 2,000 tons, a detector known as the Compact Muon Solend (CMS) and an enormous circular tunnel of 27 kilometers. Hydrogen atoms in this accelerator travel at nearly the speed of light from both directions in the tunnel and collide at the CMS. This technology offers the promise of exploring the atomic origins of the universe, learning more about dark matter and even simulating a black hole.
In the 1925, Albert Einstein theorized, based on work the previous year by Satyendra Bose, on the possibility of light quanta now known as bosons. In 1995, researchers at the University of Colorado used laser and magnetic evaporative cooling to reduce atoms to a nano-Kelvin. This technology known as Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) allows scientists to study quantum degenerate gasses. Scientists predict it will aid in understanding black holes and bright matter waves. In 2006, researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology claimed to have created a sonic black hole using BEC.
In 1999, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched the Chandra X-Ray Observatory satellite. This sophisticated technology has a High Resolution Mirror Assembly (HRMA), an Advanced Charged Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), and High and Low Transmission Grating. Using this x-ray technology to view space, Chandra provides data on atoms in space. One significant finding was the discovery of hot thin gaseous areas that may contain the half of atoms missing from observed stars and galaxies. Currently, these are not visible in any other way.