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Quantum tunnelling matters in space in two distinct ways: it helps explain how some nuclear reactions can occur inside stars, and it is a phenomenon researchers can investigate with ultracold atoms in orbit. NASA’s Cold Atom Lab provides a microgravity laboratory for quantum-gas experiments, but its work should not be mistaken for a direct recreation of tunnelling inside a star.
What quantum tunnelling means
In classical physics, a particle without enough energy to cross a barrier must be reflected by it. Quantum mechanics instead describes particles with a wave function: that wave can extend into and beyond a barrier, leaving a finite probability of finding the particle on the other side. This passage through a classically forbidden region is quantum tunnelling. NASA’s educational explanation of tunnelling uses alpha decay to illustrate the connection between tunnelling and nuclear physics.
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As Denys I. Bondar and coauthors put it in a NASA-hosted white paper, “While in classical physics particles reflect from barriers, quantum theory allows them to tunnel through such classically forbidden regions.” Tunnelling does not mean a particle has a little classical route through a barrier; it is a quantum probability described by the wave function.
How tunnelling matters inside stars
Stars release energy through nuclear reactions. NASA notes that the Sun’s energy is mostly due to reactions between atomic nuclei. Tunnelling helps make some nuclear reactions possible under conditions where a purely classical account would not permit nuclei to cross the relevant barrier. NASA’s white paper lists nuclear fusion and the formation of low-mass stars among phenomena related to tunnelling.
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That makes tunnelling one important quantum mechanism in astrophysics, not a complete explanation of stellar energy or star formation. It does not, by itself, describe all the conditions and processes that govern a star. Nor do the cited sources give a tunnelling rate for space as a whole or establish that tunnelling formed a particular interstellar molecule.
What researchers study in orbit
“In space” also refers to experiments performed in a laboratory aboard the International Space Station (ISS). NASA’s Cold Atom Lab uses ultracold quantum gases and atom interferometry. It investigates quantum behavior under microgravity conditions; this is a controlled laboratory setting, distinct from the extreme environments inside stars.
Cold Atom Lab milestones
- NASA Science says the Cold Atom Lab launched to the ISS in 2018.
- NASA Science’s 2025 overview describes a study published in November 2023 reporting simultaneous atom-interferometry work with rubidium and potassium gases in space. That milestone is evidence of the lab’s quantum-gas capabilities, not a measurement of tunnelling inside a star.
- On June 16, 2026, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that astronauts had switched on an upgraded Cold Atom Lab science module. The lab uses laser cooling and magnetic trapping to prepare rubidium or potassium gas for study. NASA says microgravity allows longer observation times and lower temperatures for these quantum-gas studies than are available on Earth.
NASA’s overview of matter-wave interferometry aboard the ISS describes the lab and its atom-interferometry research. A separate JPL account of the 2023 work quotes project scientist Jason Williams: “What we’re doing with cold atom science in general is looking for and learning about new tools that nature gives us.”
What is proposed, and what is already demonstrated?
A NASA-hosted white paper by Bondar and coauthors outlines possible experiments with interacting quantum gases in microgravity, including studies of tunnelling and spaceborne tunnelling accelerometers. A white paper describes a proposed research program; it is not evidence that every proposed experiment has flown or produced results. NASA’s reports of Cold Atom Lab operations and atom interferometry establish laboratory capabilities, but the cited sources do not show a direct observation of tunnelling inside stars or a demonstration that reproduces stellar conditions.
The distinction is useful: astrophysical tunnelling is a quantum explanation for how certain reactions can proceed in stars, while an orbital experiment examines quantum gases in a laboratory. The NASA-hosted white paper on tunnelling physics with interacting quantum gases sets out the proposed microgravity research.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Possible future uses of space-based quantum sensors
NASA identifies precise gravity measurements and tests of fundamental physics as possible future uses for space-based quantum sensors. The 2026 JPL update also discusses prospective matter-wave interferometers for fundamental physics, positioning, navigation, timing, and gravity sensing. These are potential applications, not established service capabilities. Cold Atom Lab deputy project scientist Ethan Elliott said of the lab: “As the first project to create Bose-Einstein condensates in orbit, we’re demonstrating that we can make quantum technology work reliably in space.”
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What the evidence does not establish
- There is no cited statistic that quantifies how often quantum tunnelling occurs across space, or a single rate for “quantum tunnelling in space.”
- The cited Cold Atom Lab results do not directly reproduce tunnelling inside stars.
- NASA Astrobiology describes how observations from ALMA and Herschel have expanded the study of abiotic organic molecules in star-forming regions and their possible relation to prebiotic chemistry. That account does not establish that tunnelling caused any named molecule to form. See NASA Astrobiology’s research overview.
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