When a clock is a few seconds behind, or even gradually loses time until it is already a minute or two behind, there is usually no drastic problem in the home environment. However, for scientists, a delay of one second can mean the difference between a successful rocket launch and it ending up exploding in the air. Because of this, a new atomic clock has been developed that will avoid these problems, since it will only have to be reset every 30 billion years.
Scientists at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) have decided that it was time to have an atomic clock that was truly accurate. And it is so accurate that, if we were to calculate how much time it could have slowed down since the universe existed, it would probably have been insignificant. Because the universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old and this atomic clock only loses one second every 30 billion years. That means that it doesn’t even need to be set yet.
A completely new project
Over time, JILA experts have developed various atomic clocks and systems that have gradually provided a high level of precision. But, for this occasion, they wanted to go further. To do so, they have combined different systems in the same project and made some adjustments. In other atomic clocks they used cesium atoms, and on this occasion, what they have done is change them to strontium.
In addition, they have not only modified the composition, but also the way in which the clock works. In this case, they have not used microwaves to measure the ticks of strontium, which generates 429 billion ticks per second, but have used visible light waves. The frequency of these is higher and this has made it possible to give the project a completely different function.
How did they create it?
They say that the strontium atoms that have gathered and condensed in one place are so concentrated in such a massive way that they lead to an extremely high precision in the counting of time. Thus, they have been able to verify, by doing calculations and tests, that the only delay that occurs is one second every 30 billion years. In order for everything to work correctly, what the team has done is to introduce the atoms into a light trap that is smoother and less deep than usual. They have decided to do this with the intention of avoiding the problems that have been previously found with other atomic clocks, such as the loss of precision due to the impact of the atoms with each other.
With the performance they have managed to achieve, which is already considered not only a record, but a limit that other scientists may not be interested in surpassing, they achieve such extreme precision that the clock will not need to be adjusted for thousands of years. And that is, of course, if the atomic clock in question still exists. Because considering that it can last 30 billion years before it is one second behind and that the universe is still halfway through that period, it is more than likely that the clock will not exist when that day comes.
In practice, the existence of such an atomic clock could be very beneficial for scientists. It could give them the opportunity to carry out highly precise work and improve or develop all kinds of systems in which the difference of a second can be vital. For example, it could be really useful to improve the way GPS works. Its creators also say that the precision is so extreme that they can detect effects of a minuscule size that could not be calculated in any other way and that even encompass the microscopic scale. This is a great advance in terms of the way in which we understand time, how it is managed and how we understand various aspects of physics that now, with this tool, could be explored more thoroughly.
