We all know that the absolute zero temperature is -273°C (-460°F), where even the atoms in a substance completely stop moving, effectively freezing. But if there’s a limit to how cold something can get, is there a limit to how hot it can get?
The hottest thing we know of is the Sun. The surface temperature of the Sun is approximately 5500°C (9932°F). However, this is quite low compared to the temperature at the core of the Sun, which exceeds 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit). But this is not the maximum value.
The core temperature of a supernova explosion, which occurs when a massive star dies, exceeds 3 billion degrees Celsius (3 billion degrees Fahrenheit). This is over 200 times hotter than the core temperature of our Sun. But this is not the ultimate maximum temperature either.
You might be surprised to know that the highest temperature ever recorded is actually man-made. You may have heard of CERN in Switzerland. It is the world’s largest organization for nuclear research, established by Europeans. Inside CERN, there is a particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider, which creates extremely high temperatures during particle collisions. These temperatures exceed 5 trillion Kelvin (I couldn’t convert it to Celsius 😑). This temperature is comparable to the heat that followed the Big Bang.
But even this is not the maximum temperature.
We can go even higher. At a temperature of 141.6784 nonillion Kelvin, the laws of modern physics break down. It’s impossible to determine if there exists a temperature beyond this.
Moreover, objects that exceed 10,000 Kelvin have a specific color. They aren’t red, yellow, or white. They are blue. This color is known as the Color of Infinite Temperature.
Perhaps in the future, scientists will be able to discover objects with extremely high temperatures.