apod
06-25-08, 12:26 PM
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0806/hannysvoorwerp_wht.jpg (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0806/hannysvoorwerp_wht_big.jpg) What is Hanny's Voorwerp?
Credit: Galaxy Zoo (http://www.galaxyzoo.org/) Project, ING (http://www.ing.iac.es/index.html)
Explanation: What is that green thing? A volunteer sky enthusiast surfing through online Galaxy Zoo images (http://www.galaxyzoo.org/Tutorial.aspx) has discovered something really strange. The mystery object (http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/research/voorwerp.html) is unusually green, not of any clear galaxy type, and situated below relatively normal looking spiral (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070529.html) galaxy IC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Catalog) 2497. Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel, discovered the strange green "voorwerp" (http://www.galaxyzooblog.org/2008/03/20/voorwerp-fever/) (Dutch for "object") last year. The Galaxy Zoo project encourages sky enthusiasts to browse through SDSS images (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980617.html) and classify galaxy types. Now known popularly as Hanny's Voorwerp (http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=64.0), subsequent observations have shown that the mysterious green blob has the same distance as neighboring galaxy IC 2497. Research is ongoing, but one leading hypothesis holds that Hanny's Voorwerp (http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33403/title/Science_%2B_the_Public__Galaxy_Zoos_blue_mystery_( part_I)) is a small galaxy that acts like a large reflection nebula (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/reflection_nebulae.html), showing the reflected light of a bright quasar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar) event that happened in the center of IC 2497 about 100,000 years ago. Pictured above, Hanny's Voorwerp (http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33436/title/Galaxy_Zoos_blue_mystery_%28part_2%29) was imaged recently by the 4.2-meter William Hershel Telescope (http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/telescopes/wht/) in the Canary Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Islands) by Matt Jarvis (http://star-www.herts.ac.uk/~mjarvis/), Kevin Schawinski (http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~kevins/), and William Keel (http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/).
Source (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080625.html)
Credit: Galaxy Zoo (http://www.galaxyzoo.org/) Project, ING (http://www.ing.iac.es/index.html)
Explanation: What is that green thing? A volunteer sky enthusiast surfing through online Galaxy Zoo images (http://www.galaxyzoo.org/Tutorial.aspx) has discovered something really strange. The mystery object (http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/research/voorwerp.html) is unusually green, not of any clear galaxy type, and situated below relatively normal looking spiral (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070529.html) galaxy IC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Catalog) 2497. Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel, discovered the strange green "voorwerp" (http://www.galaxyzooblog.org/2008/03/20/voorwerp-fever/) (Dutch for "object") last year. The Galaxy Zoo project encourages sky enthusiasts to browse through SDSS images (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980617.html) and classify galaxy types. Now known popularly as Hanny's Voorwerp (http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=64.0), subsequent observations have shown that the mysterious green blob has the same distance as neighboring galaxy IC 2497. Research is ongoing, but one leading hypothesis holds that Hanny's Voorwerp (http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33403/title/Science_%2B_the_Public__Galaxy_Zoos_blue_mystery_( part_I)) is a small galaxy that acts like a large reflection nebula (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/reflection_nebulae.html), showing the reflected light of a bright quasar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar) event that happened in the center of IC 2497 about 100,000 years ago. Pictured above, Hanny's Voorwerp (http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33436/title/Galaxy_Zoos_blue_mystery_%28part_2%29) was imaged recently by the 4.2-meter William Hershel Telescope (http://www.ing.iac.es/Astronomy/telescopes/wht/) in the Canary Islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Islands) by Matt Jarvis (http://star-www.herts.ac.uk/~mjarvis/), Kevin Schawinski (http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~kevins/), and William Keel (http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/).
Source (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080625.html)