The Boomerang Nebula (also called the Tie-Dye Nebula) is a nebula located 5,000 light-years away from Earth in the Centaurus constellation. The nebula is at 1 kelvin; the coldest place known outside a laboratory. The Boomerang Nebula is formed from the outflow of gas from a star at its core. The gas is moving outwards at a speed of about 600,000 km/h and expanding rapidly as it moves out into space. This expansion is the cause of the nebula's very low temperature. The Boomerang nebula, NASA public domain File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Boomerang nebula, NASA public domain File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Triangulum Emission Nebula NGC 604 lies in a spiral arm of Galaxy M33, 2. ... To help compare different orders of magnitude, this page lists distances between 1019 m (1,100 light years) and 1020 m (11,000 light years). ... Earth is the third planet from the Sun. ... Centaurus (Latin for centaur) was one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy, and counts also among the 88 modern constellations. ... To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists temperatures between 1 kelvin and 10 kelvins. ... Kilometre per hour (American spelling: kilometer per hour) is a unit of both speed (scalar) and velocity (vector). ...
The Boomerang Nebula was photographed in detail by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998. It is believed that the nebula is a star or stellar system evolving toward the planetary nebula phase. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a telescope in orbit around the Earth. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... The Pleiades star cluster A star is a massive body of plasma in outer space that is currently producing or has produced energy through nuclear fusion. ... A star system or stellar system is a group of stars (and possibly smaller bodies such as planets or asteroids) that orbit one another (a system with planetary bodies orbiting stars, are referred to as solar systems or planetary systems). ... NGC 6543, the Cats Eye Nebula A planetary nebula is an astronomical object consisting of a glowing shell of gas and plasma formed by certain types of stars at the end of their lives. ...
External links
Astrophysical Journal paper on the Boomerang Nebula
The symmetric cloud appears to have been created by a high-speed wind of gas and dust blowing from an aging asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star at a speed of 164 km/s.
The ultracool Boomerang shines with light from the central star reflected by dust and is believed to be evolving rapidly, on a timescale of about 1,000 years, to the planetary nebula stage.
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