was first to liquefy hydrogen, reaching a new low-temperature record of . However, Kamerlingh Onnes, his rival, was the first to liquefy helium, in 1908, using several precooling stages and the Hampson–Linde cycle. He lowered the temperature to the boiling point of helium . By reducing the pressure of the liquid helium he achieved an even lower temperature, near 1.5 K. These were the coldest temperatures achieved on Earth at the time and his achievement earned him the Nobel Prize in 1913. Kamerlingh Onnes would continue to study the properties of materials at temperatures near absolute zero, describing superconductivity and superfluids for the first time. Very low temperatures The average temperature of the universe today is approximately , or about −270.42 ºC, based on measurements of cosmic microwave background radiation. Standard models of the future expansion of the universe predict that the average temperature of the universe is decreasing over time. This temperature is calculated as the mean density of energy in space; it should not be confused with the mean electron temperature (total energy divided by particle count) which has increased over time. Absolute zero cannot be achieved, although it is possible to reach temperatures close to it through the use of evaporative cooling, cryocoolers, dilution refrigerators, and nuclear adiabatic demagnetization. The use of laser cooling has produced temperatures of less than a billionth of a kelvin. At very low temperatures in the vicinity of absolute zero, matter exhibits many unusual properties, including superconductivity, superfluidity, and Bose–Einstein condensation. To study such phenomena, scientists have worked to obtain even lower temperatures. In November 2000, nuclear spin temperatures below 100 pK were reported for an experiment at the Helsinki University of Technology's Low Temperature Lab in Espoo, Finland. However, this was the temperature of one particular degree of freedom—a quantum property called nuclear spin—not the overall average thermodynamic temperature for all possible degrees in freedom. In February 2003, the Boomerang Nebula was observed to have been releasing gases at a speed of for the last 1,500 years. This has cooled it down to approximately 1 K, as deduced by astronomical observation, which is the lowest natural temperature ever recorded. In November 2003, 90377 Sedna was discovered and is one of the coldest known objects in the Solar System. With an average surface temperature of -400°F (-240°C), due to its extremely far orbit of 903 astronomical units. In May 2005, the European