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Frank Cotolo
January 16, 2014 |
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Astronomers working with a large telescope in Chile found something exciting.
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While studying an area they call Boomerang Nebula, they realized the nebula was probably the coldest
spot in the universe.
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"We were sitting around laughing," said one of the astronomers, "because the name we gave the nebula
began to sound like a cartoon character. One of the gals began to sketch what a cartoon character
would look like if its name was Boomerang Nebula and when we saw it we all laughed, except for Carl,
he thought a cartoon character with that name should be a buffalo, which made us all laugh again
because that is just dumb, you know, I mean a buffalo would more have a name like Hornsharp Harry
or Furry McDoogle and those could never be names of nebulas."
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The team of scientists intensely scrutinized the nebula’s frigid properties to determine it was
ultra cold. They used a newly developed telescope called a Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter
Array, which gave them a crisper look at the nebula.
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"We call the telescope Alma, which is nowhere near as funny as the name we gave the nebula," said
another in the team. "I thought we might call it Boom Boom Alma but no one laughed at that. Then I
said how about AmTrak Alma, like the train company, but someone said that was dumb to name a
telescope after a train company and I began to see what they meant as time passed."
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They say now that though they see the nebula better, it is difficult to determine its shape. Every
one of the scientists that looked at it closely saw something different.
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One saw the shape as a lopsided bow tie while another saw it as a triangular trombone while another
saw it as a chainsaw while another saw it as a jelly donut while another saw it as a ping pong
table. Then the one that saw it as a lopsided bow tie agreed with the one that saw it as a jelly
donut and stopped seeing the lopsided bow tie.
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"It seemed the shape was changing," said another scientist, "but the light is tricky because the
object is at the end of its life, ready to dissipate in a burst of gas. When I said burst of gas
the others laughed and one of them said that Boomerang Nebula passing gas was one of the funniest
things he ever heard. In fact, he called his family at his home and told them and we could hear
them laughing over the phone."
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Just how cold do they estimate the area to be?
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