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Astronomers Solve the Mystery of 'Hanny's Voorwerp'
KentuckyFC writes "In 2007, a Dutch school teacher named Hanny van Arkel discovered a huge blob of green-glowing gas while combing though images to classify galaxies. Hanny's Voorwerp (meaning Hanny's object in Dutch) is astounding because astronomers have never seen anything like it. Although galactic in scale, it is clearly not a galaxy because it does not contain any stars. That raises an obvious question: what is causing the gas to glow? Now a new survey of the region of sky seems to have solved the problem. The Voorwerp lies close to a spiral galaxy which astronomers now say hides a massive black hole at its center. The infall of matter into the black hole generates a cone of radiation emitted in a specific direction. The great cloud of gas that is Hanny's Voorwerp just happens to be in the firing line, ionizing the gas and causing it to glow green. That lays to rest an earlier theory that the cloud was reflecting an echo of light from a short galactic flare up that occurred 10,000 years ago. It also explains why Voorwerps are so rare: these radiation cones are highly directional so only occasionally do unlucky gas clouds get caught in the crossfire."
There's a preview button for a reason dipshit.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
I think that such a gas cloud is fairly lucky to be lit up like that. Unless, of course, the radiation is somehow harmful to a giant cloud of gas.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0806/hannysvoorwerp_wht_big.jpg
Kermit the frog . . . is that you?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I don't know I think we should teach the controversy w/r/t celestial gas clouds and ionizing radiation.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
Yes, clearly these are angels lighting their farts. If we refuse to teach the angels-lighting-their-farts theory of celestial gaseous illumination, then we will be depriving people of the diversity of opinions in this field. Why would astronomers want to cover it up anyway? Are they afraid it might be true?
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
"Hanny's Voorwerp" would be a great name for a Rock Band.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
This is English. We make our own rules and other languages learn to live by them.
Just be glad we didn't make it Veerworp.
When you know Dutch, the summary sounds really strange:
It also explains why Voorwerps are so rare
Really? Objects are rare?
Yeah, the plural of voorwerp is voorwerpen. Only Americans can find Voorwerps.
It's a shame that it's not a galaxy-sized, warm incandescent light.
:-/
Fluorescent light is so not-flattering for us here on Earth.
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
What mystery? We hear that Voorwerp Voorwerp Voorwerp sound whenever that stupid police box appears. There's no mystery except nobody knows what the owner's name is.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I thought a voorwerp was a Klingon sex toy. My bad... :-}
But, to play purely devil's advocate -- if there truly was a creator-being...
I don't think you're advocating the devil in this particular case. :D
Astronomer returns home from day at work
Astronomer: Hi, Honey!
Astronomer's wife: Hello dear, how was work?
Astronomer: Oh, the usual. An astounding object we've never seen before, and a couple of amazing discoveries, and this morning was a mad house, there was a huge batch of surprising observations waiting for me when I got in. I was swamped for hours.
Astronomer's wife: That's nice, dear.
Edith Keeler Must Die