The Coldest Place in the Universe - William S

Woo, M. (2014). BBC - Earth - Why the coldest place in the universe is so special. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20140916-the-coldest-place-in-the-universe

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The article, "Why the Coldest Place In the Universe is So Special," talks about the Boomerang Nebula and its unique characteristics. The Boomerang Nebula is a nebula that is approximately 5,000 light years away from Earth. The Boomerang Nebula is special because it can reach as low as 272.2 degrees Celsius. That temperature is only half a degree above absolute zero. This is very unique, because the coldest it gets anywhere else in the observable universe is only 270 degrees. The low temperature of the nebula makes it of interest to astronomers, since it gives them information on how thhings act in space in such cold temperatures. This is something that has perplexed astronomers for a long time, and no theories have been proven yet.
The author then goes onto to detail the life cycle of many stars. Since the life cycle of a star has been covered in class and going over it would be repetitive, I will not cover it in this summary. The article then goes onto talk about the other thing that makes the star special, and that is its shape. The star looks life a boomerang when observed with crude equipment. However, scientists discovered that the star is shaped more like an hourglass upon further observation. The shape of the boomerang star is due to its status as a pre-planetary nebula. This transitional period, which ends with the star becoming a full-fledged planetary nebula, lasts only a thousand years; this fact means that pre-planetary nebulas are incredibly rare.
The author then talks about how the connection between the star's status as a pre-plantary nebula and its temperature was made. In the mid 19900s, astronomers Raghvendra Sahai and Lars Nyman discovered that the star was shooting out clouds of molecules at 164 km/s. Since gas gets colder as its expands, this meant that the nebula was so cold because its gas was expanding so quickly.
This article necessarily has relevance to our modern society. As we know more and more about the world around us, its is the public's duty to know more about the world around them. This is because if the public is not informed about the world, the public will be able to be manipulated by ill-intentioned leaders on the issues of science. The public indirectly controls where scientific funding goes through the vote, so it is the public's duty to make sure its taxes are put to good use in terms of science. Carl Sagan once said, "We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."  This is an extremely dangerous place to be, and with things such as global warming, it may lead to our downfall.

I liked this article. It was written very well. The piece was almost in the style of a narrative of sorts, which made me want to keep reading. The author also got his facts right, which is a must for any science article. The author was able to give accurate facts, but it gave these facts in a digestible and understanding manner. Articles that are both accurate and easily digestible are rare these days, which makes this article even more impressive. The numerous pictures also were helpful with visualizing the pre-planetary nebula and other cosmic concepts. However, this article is a little bit too long. It spent way too much time on the history of the observation of this nebula. The article also spent a little bit too much time on the life cycle of stars. This article could have been much shorter, cleaner, and more concise. The author should've given less background and more facts about the actual topic. The author should have assumed some scientific knowledge on the part of the reader.