Bizarre Giant Green Cloud:"Hanny's voorwerp"

spacedaily ^

[JoeProBono]

New observations made by radio telescopes have finally revealed the nature of the bizarre object known as "Hanny's voorwerp" (SDSS J094103.80+344334.2). The Voorwerp was discovered by Hanny van Arkel, a Dutch school teacher and an enthusiastic volunteer of the Galaxy Zoo project.

While surfing through hundred's of images, Hanny noticed a huge green irregular cloud of gas of galactic scale, located about 60,000 light years from a nearby galaxy, IC2497.

The object has had astronomers scratching their heads for over a year now - the extent of the cloud is enormous and the gas is extremely hot (> 15000 Celsius) but paradoxically it is devoid of stars.

[JoeProBono]

An international team of astronomers, led by Prof. Mike Garrett (ASTRON/Leiden) , and including Hanny van Arkel herself, have observed IC2497 and the Voorwerp with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) and an e-VLBI array in which the WSRT also participated.

The picture that is emerging from these data is that a jet of highly energetic particles is being generated by a massive black hole at the centre of IC2497. "It looks as though the jet emanating from the black hole clears a path through the dense interstellar medium of IC 2497 towards Hanny's Voorwerp", says Garrett.

"This cleared channel permits the beam of intense optical and ultraviolet emission associated with the black hole, to illuminate a small part of a large gas cloud that partially surrounds the galaxy. The optical and ultraviolet emission heats and ionises the gas cloud, thus creating the phenomena known as Hanny's voorwerp.

One remaining question is where does all the hydrogen gas come from? "There is a lot of gas out there - the WSRT observations detect a huge stream of gas that is extended across hundreds of thousands of light years", says Dr. Gyula Jozsa, another member of the team.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I thought this was a Sean Hannity story, and that Alan Colmes, his VoorWerp, was resigning from the show.

[brytlea]

Hmmm that looks like Kermit the frog walking with his arms out in front of him but his hands touching....

[pepperdog]

I see kermit, and I’m not kidding!

[pepperdog]

Well that settles it, we both see Kermit, it must be him, but what on earth (oops, not earth but ????) is he doing out there?

[JoeProBono]

I thought this was a Sean Hannity story"

[JoeProBono]

"I see kermit, and I’m not kidding!"

Of course you do. We all do.

[353FMG]

Looks like Kermit the Frog to me. Or could it be superheated chlorine?

[B4Ranch]

A space fart.

[Hot Tabasco]

The object has had astronomers scratching their heads for over a year now

Sounds more like a head lice or dandruff problem.............Selsun Blue?

[JoeProBono]

"Looks like Kermit the Frog to me. Or could it be superheated chlorine?"

IT'S ME!!!

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

“Just 3 million light-years a day is all I ask...”

[NonValueAdded]

Looks a little like the slime guy from Ghostbusters.

[JoeProBono]

"Looks a little like the slime guy from Ghostbusters."

"I second that! Screw Kermit"

[BenLurkin]

Yup and he’s got a little green dog following him.

[brytlea]

Perhaps we have had a glimpse of frog Heaven?! Or...maybe muppet Heaven. Or, maybe Jim Henson in the afterlife.

[brytlea]

Maybe not, maybe a tadpole!

[theymakemesick]

"New observations made by radio telescopes...

If radio telescopes made the observations, is the cloud really green?

[mozarky2]

I work with a guy who sometimes has a green cloud around him. Next time I see that cloud surrounding him, I’m going to ask, “Geez, Mark, did you Voorwerp AGAIN?”

[Redcloak]

It could be a budong.