In the natural world, Antarctica is where to look for the coldest place on Earth. In 1983, thermometers at the Soviet Vostok Station recorded an air temperature of -89.2°C.
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This remains the lowest temperature ever measured directly at ground level. But remote satellite measurements of surface ice at -93.2°C suggest it might get even colder than that.
Antarctica is colder than the Arctic because it is a landmass surrounded by ocean, and is higher on average than the Arctic - thanks in part to the Transantarctic Mountains. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is also bigger and thicker than the Arctic's ice.
Antarctica is home to a hole host of wildlife from penguins to albatrosses, seals to whales.
In the lab, scientists can artificially reduce the temperature to just a few trillionths of a degree above the theoretical minimum of -273.15oC, at which point particles stop moving.
