DISCOVERY: One Of The Roundest Objects Ever Created By Humans
By Victor Olubiye
What you're seeing in the image is not just an ordinary sphere… it’s a scientific marvel!
This sphere, made from ultra-pure silicon-28, was developed by scientists in the Avogadro Project to help redefine the kilogram using universal constants instead of physical objects.
Why is it so special?
It was crafted with such precision that its deviation from a perfect sphere is only 50 nanometers. To put that in perspective: if this sphere were the size of the Earth, its imperfections would be just 2 to 3 meters high.
This level of perfection allowed scientists to calculate exactly how many atoms it contains, which helped redefine the kilogram in 2019. Since then, the unit has been based on the Planck constant, not on a physical cylinder stored in France.
Its surface is so smooth that a single speck of dust could reveal whether it’s rotating. There’s truly nothing like it.
The image reflects a scientific laboratory, where this technological gem was handled with extreme care and precision.
Source: National Research Council of Canada (NRC), statement on the Avogadro Project and kilogram redefinition.
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