"And once in those pockets, the air can cool still further and get down this extra three or four degrees below the previous record air temperature in Vostok." "It's in Antarctica of course," Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., said here today (Dec. 9) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. On Earth's Moon, temperatures of minus 238C have been detected. A mind- — and body-numbing — minus 136 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 93.2 Celsius), measured in pockets scattered near a high ice ridge between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, two summits on the East Antarctic Plateau. The coldest temperature they found occurred on Aug. 10, 2010 (winter in the Southern Hemisphere). The new satellite figure, on the other hand, is the "skin" temperature of the ice surface itself - what you would feel if you put your hand on it. The new low is a good 50 degrees colder than temperatures in Alaska or Siberia, and about 30 degrees colder than the summit of Greenland. As the air near the Earth's surface gets colder, it also gets denser, and begins sliding down the dome, until it encounters one of these pockets, where it can become stuck. It should be stated this was an air temperature taken a couple of metres above the surface, and, as such, receives the recognition of the World Meteorological Organization as the official coldest place on the planet. The long-standing record for the coldest temperature by that measure was, of course, also in Antarctica, at the Vostok Research Station, where it reached minus 128.6 F (minus 89.2 C) in July 1983. "However, I'm now confident we know where the coldest places on Earth are, and why they are there."
– If you're reading this in a spot just below the crest of an ice ridge on the East Antarctic Plateau, you're probably frozen solid by now. Researchers using satellite data say the area is the coldest place on Earth, with a record low of -136 Fahrenheit (-93.2 Celsius) recorded, a "soul-crushing" low colder than the -128.6 F (-89.2 C) recorded at Antarctica's Vostok Research Station in 1983, LiveScience reports. The temperature was recorded on Aug. 10, 2010—during the Southern Hemisphere's winter. "These very low temperatures are hard to imagine, I know," a researcher from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center tells the BBC. "The way I like to put it is that it's almost as cold below freezing as boiling water is above freezing. The new low is a good 50 degrees colder than temperatures in Alaska or Siberia, and about 30 degrees colder than the summit of Greenland." Researchers say chilled air flowing into topographic lows creates a string of super-cold spots along the Antarctic ridge—all with very similar temperatures, suggesting it is about as low as temperatures on our planet can get. Though the number could get a degree or two colder; the BBC explains -136 F is a preliminary number that could be adjusted as researchers "refine" the data pulled from the satellites' thermal sensors. (Another amazing satellite find: a new highest peak in Southeast Asia.)