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The boomerang nebula coldest place in the universe

  • 31-10-2013 11:38pm
    #1
    apollo8
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 349 ✭✭


    Boomerang_lores.jpg

    At a cosmologically crisp one degree Kelvin (minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit), the Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known object in the Universe - colder, in fact, than the faint afterglow of the Big Bang, which is the natural background temperature of space.

    Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have taken a new look at this intriguing object to learn more about its frigid properties and to determine its true shape, which has an eerily ghost-like appearance.

    As originally observed with ground-based telescopes, this nebula appeared lopsided, which is how it got its name. Later observations with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed a bow-tie-like structure. The new ALMA data, however, reveal that the Hubble image tells only part of the story, and the twin lobes seen in that image may actually be a trick of the light as seen at visible wavelengths.

    "This ultra-cold object is extremely intriguing and we're learning much more about its true nature with ALMA," said Raghvendra Sahai, a researcher and principal scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.

    continue reading http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/ALMA_Reveals_Ghostly_Shape_of_Coldest_Place_in_the_Universe_999.html


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