The Boomerang Nebula, a Sun-like star in its death throes about 5,000 light-years away, has cooled itself below the leftover heat of the Big Bang. The mechanism is the same one that runs your refrigerator.
Space is not empty, and it is not perfectly cold. Everywhere in the universe, even in the darkest gulf between galaxies, there is a faint, even glow left over from the Big Bang, and it sets the natur… [+6785 chars]