Boomerang Nebula / The Coldest Place in the Universe

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About

The Boomerang Nebula or The Coldest Place in the Universe refers to a supermassive red-and-orange nebula that was first spotted in 1995 by astronomers and released to the public in 2013. Due to its visual similarity to an Among Us crewmate, the photo became an exploitable in Amogus meme on YouTube and other platforms in 2021.

Origin

In 1995, astronomers in Chile first spotted the nebula, which was later officially named the "Boomerang Nebula."^[1] The photo in question (shown below) was released to the public on October 24th, 2013. The temperature at the location was no more than 1 Kelvin (-458 °F, -272 °C), hence the nickname as the "Coldest Place in the Universe."^[2]

Spread

The Coldest Place in the Universe photo became a meme in late June 2021, gaining prominence online as an exploitable image in photoshops. On June 29th, 2021, YouTuber ^[3] Thotti posted Walter White from Breaking Bad googling up the coldest place in the universe on his phone but then falls while seeing the picture because it looks like an Among Us crewmate (shown below). The video hit 10,000 views in two days. The video grew to see use in various bait-and-switch media over the following several days, with characters reacting with horror upon seeing the likeness to an Among Us crewmate.

Amogus Twitter

On February 4th, 2022, Twitter account @TheNRAO tweeted^[4] the picture and named it the "Radio Image of the Week," bringing it back to the forefront of people's attention. The ensuing Amogus posting in their replies led to the replies becoming locked on the post, with QRTs still being an option for interacting with the post, which many did (shown below).

NRAO NRAO @TheNRAO Radio Image of the Week coldest known spot in space! This is the Boomerang Nebula, and it has a temperature of just 1 Kelvin Cold gas doesn't emit much light, but the sensitive detectors of @almaobs have captured its faint radio glow...(1/2) This cool image shows the

This tweet eventually caught the attention of the official Among Us Twitter account,^[5] which QRT'd it and added a caption, earning them over 163,000 likes in one day (shown below).