The coldest place in the universe has a boomerang

This butterfly-shaped nebula is located in the constellation Centaurusm, more than 5,000 light-years from Earth, and the coldest place in the universe. It forms around a bright, central star, discharging gas at dying moments.

The Boomerang Nebula is a special place. In 1995, using Sweden's large telescope in Chile, astronomers discovered it had a negative temperature of 272 degrees Celsius, and was only 1 degree warmer than absolute zero (the lowest limit of temperature).

Even the background radiation left over from the Big Bang period (minus 270 degrees Celsius) is also warmer than this nebula. It is also the only object found to date that is lower than the background radiation.

The shape of the nebula's butterfly bow appears to be the result of an extremely intense wind, at about 310,000 miles per hour, blowing cold-air air away from the dying star's center. This star is losing about one-thousandth of the mass of solar material every year, over the past 1,500 years, 10-100 times faster than similar objects.

The rapid expansion of the nebula allows it to become the coldest region in the universe.

Boomerang Nebula.(Photo: NASA)