Context: Recently, Scientists have observed the fifth state of matter in space for the first time, offering unprecedented insight that could help solve some of the quantum universe's most intractable problems.
Background 

• Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are formed when atoms of certain elements are cooled to near absolute zero. They were predicted by Albert Einstein and Indian mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose almost a century ago. 
• A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is known as the fifth state of matter, after solid, liquid, gas and plasma.
• The existence of BEC was predicted by Indian mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein in mid 1920s.

Recent developments

• BECs in terrestrial labs typically last a handful of milliseconds before dissipating.
• The Scientists at International Space Station (ISS) have recently observed the fifth state of matter in space for the first time.
• The BECs lasted more than a second, in ISS due to microgravity, as these particles can manipulated here free from Earthly constraints (limitations due to Earth’s gravity).
• This offered the team an unprecedented chance to study their properties.

Significance: Scientists believe BECs contain vital clues to mysterious phenomena such as dark energy– the unknown energy thought to be behind the Universe’s accelerating expansion.

Formation

• They are formed when atoms of certain elements are cooled to near absolute zero (0 Kelvin, minus 273.15 Celsius).
• The fifth state of matter is produced when the atoms in a gas become ionised.
• When bosonic atoms are cooled to form a condensate, they can lose their individuality.
• They behave like one big collective super atom, similar to how photons become indistinguishable in a laser beam.
• The first BEC was shown experimentally in June 1995 by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US, by cooling a gas of around 2,000 Rubidium atoms.

Properties

• BECs straddle (belong) between the macroscopic world governed by forces such as gravity and the microscopic world ruled by quantum mechanics.
• BECs are extremely fragile and the slightest interaction with the external world is enough to warm them past their condensation threshold.