Lowest temperature recorded on Earth

The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on 21 July, 1983 by ground measurements. The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on 21 July, 1983 by ground measurements. On 10 August, 2010, satellite observations showed a surface temperature of −93.2 °C (−135.8 °F; 180.0 K) at 81°48′S 59°18′E / 81.8°S 59.3°E / -81.8; 59.3, along a ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, at 3,900 m (12,800 ft) elevation. The result was reported at the 46th annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in December 2013; it is a provisional figure, and may be subject to revision. The value is not listed as the record lowest temperature as it was measured by remote sensing from satellite and not by ground-based thermometers, unlike the 1983 record. The temperature announced reflects that of the ice surface, while the Vostok readings measured the air above the ice, and so the two are not directly comparable. More recent work shows many locations in the high Antarctic where surface temperatures drop to approximately −98 °C (−144 °F; 175 K). Due to the very strong temperature gradient near the surface, these imply near-surface air temperature minima of approximately −94 °C (−137 °F; 179 K). On 21 January, 1838 a recording was made by the Russian merchant Neverov in Yakutsk, of −60 °C (−76 °F; 213 K). On 15 January, 1885 H. Wild reported that a temperature of −68 °C (−90 °F; 205 K) was noted in Verkhoyansk. A later measurement at the same place in February 1892 was reported as −69.8 °C (−93.6 °F; 203.3 K). Soviet researchers later announced a recording of −67.7 °C (−89.9 °F; 205.5 K) in February 1933 at Oymyakon, about 650 km (400 mi) to the south-east of Verkhoyansk; this measurement was reported by Soviet texts through the 1940s as a record low, with the previous measurement from Verkhoyansk retroactively adjusted to −67.6 °C (−89.7 °F; 205.6 K). The next reliable measurement was made during the 1957 season at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, yielding −73.6 °C (−100.5 °F; 199.6 K) on 11 May and −74.5 °C (−102.1 °F; 198.7 K) on 17 September. A subsequent measurement of −88.3 °C (−126.9 °F; 184.8 K), on 24 August, 1960, held the record until a temperature of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K) was measured at the Soviet Vostok Station, on the Antarctic Plateau, on 21 July, 1983. This remains the record for a directly recorded temperature. In 1904 Dutch scientist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes created a special lab in Leiden with the aim of producing liquid helium. In 1908 he managed to lower the temperature to less than −269 °C (−452.2 F, 4 K), which is less than four degrees above absolute zero. Only in this exceptionally cold state will helium liquefy, the boiling point of helium being at −268.94 °C (−452.092 F). Kamerlingh Onnes received a Nobel Prize for his achievement. Onnes' method relied upon depressurising the subject gases, causing them to cool by adiabatic cooling. This follows from the first law of thermodynamics; Δ U = Δ Q − Δ W {displaystyle Delta U=Delta Q-Delta W} where U = internal energy, Q = heat added to the system, W = work done by the system. Consider a gas in a box of set volume. If the pressure in the box is higher than atmospheric pressure, then upon opening the box our gas will do work on the surrounding atmosphere to expand. As this expansion is adiabatic and the gas has done work