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Hubble Confirms Nature of Mysterious Green Blob

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the send-in-kilowog dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In 2007, Dutch secondary school biology teacher Hanny van Arkel spotted something mysterious in the night sky. Combing through Galaxy Zoo, an online database set up to enlist the public's help in classifying galaxies, she came across a glowing green smudge of light approximately 650 million light-years away. The object, which became known as Hanny's Voorwerp (Dutch for 'object'), is one of the most mysterious in the universe. Now, detailed Hubble Space Telescope images and new x-ray observations presented here today at the 217th meeting of the American Astronomical Society may finally confirm what it is."

11 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Reminds me of a Star Trek quote by Kufat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Kirk: Bones, there's a... voorwerp... out there.
    Bones: Why is any object we don't understand always called "a voorwerp"?

  2. Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA by Pharmboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think it wouldn't have been too much to add this to the entry.

    But unnecessary. Everyone on Slashdot would have read the entire article and found out anyway, right?

    --
    Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  3. Some new kind of kink by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Funny

    .. a gas cloud who was irradiated until recently by a now dead quasar. The irradiation excited the oxygen atoms in the cloud, making it glow green.

    Well, that certainly sounds like a kink that I have not heard of yet. Exciting irradiation? With a dead quasar? Hmm ... maybe the necrophilia gang ...

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  4. Intergalactic snot. by olsmeister · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is what happens when Cthulhu gets a nasty head cold.

  5. This was identified in the 70s. by NevDull · · Score: 4, Funny

    Green blob in the sky? Hanny van Arkel?

    Is it not exceedingly obvious what it is?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Green_Arkleseizure#Great_Green_Arkleseizure

    I, for one, welcome the coming of the Great White Handkerchief.

  6. Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA by SailorSpork · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is Slashdot. People read the work "Voorwerp," chuckled, and went on to look for a new article to try and fan an Apple vs. Linux flame war .

  7. Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA by thynk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wait... what? There are articles?

    --

    Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
  8. This was identified in Futurama by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 4, Funny

    He is Melvar! Seer of the Tapes, Knower of the Episodes. Tremble before his encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek.

  9. Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA by Stele · · Score: 3, Funny

    I only read Slashdot for the articles - honest!

  10. Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I sure hope you aren't looking at slashdot for the nude photos.

    Ewwwwww.

    Remember that which has been seen cannot be unseen.

  11. Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA by bhcompy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I read it for the goatse