Hubble Confirms Nature of Mysterious Green Blob

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."

Comments

And for those not interested in reading TFA

[gomiam]

... the blob is, according to observations, 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.

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

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Pharmboy]

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?

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[ArhcAngel]

You don't want to make that cloud angry.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[SailorSpork]

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 .

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Kilrah_il]

You can find out a bit more information here.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[qinjuehang]

... the blob is, according to observations, 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.

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

... the blob is, according to observations, 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.

a gas cloud who was irradiated until recently by a now dead quasar

a gas cloud who was irradiated

a gas cloud who

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[thynk]

Wait... what? There are articles?

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[ocdscouter]

I read the word and wondered if Douglas Adams wrote the article.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[FatdogHaiku]

Not to mention a link to a larger photo... thanks.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[gomiam]

Actually, the gas cloud is about 650 million light-years away. The quasar would have died just 200.000 years ago (which is quite recent in astronomy, AFAIK). Perhaps I should have made it clear that I meant recently relative to the gas cloud.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Tragedy4u]

Science, schmience! Don't you know this is the end of the world as we know it? Hollywood, H.P. Lovecraft and the Mayans predicted our doom. This green cloud is elder god Azathoth growing, and slowly devouring the universe. Grab your tinfoil hats folks, pack food into your backyard bomb shelter and call NASA to find out when we need to duck and cover!

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[yakumo.unr]

They leave out such pertinent points intentionally to encourage you to fill them in and score some easy mod points, instead of "first post" every article.

I bet you'd find they even get removed if you submit with them included ;)

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[mldi]

No it won't, but we'll be able to observe it from planet Earth for another 650 million years.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[damien_kane]

Don't you know this is the end of the world as we know it?

/shrug... I feel fine

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Stele]

I only read Slashdot for the articles - honest!

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[TheRaven64]

No, but don't say that around any of the believers. There's a strange religion (or possibly cult) that claims to have seen the mythical 'articles' but there's no scientific evidence for them. People claim to have received enlightenment as a result of 'reading' what believers refer to as 'TFA', but often this enlightenment is simply some misleading factoids.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[gomiam]

Sorry for being such a nitpicker. Actually, if the quasar that lit up the cloud died about 200.000 years ago, I don't expect the cloud to glow much longer than that, as in... perhaps just a million years? I guess it basically depends on the distance between the quasar and the cloud, so I might be mistaken by several ordes of magnitude.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Ewwwwww.

Remember that which has been seen cannot be unseen.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[arivanov]

Yep.

And this way it prevents anyone who wanted to pitch a few Galactic North jokes.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Jerrry]

"Sorry for being such a nitpicker. Actually, if the quasar that lit up the cloud died about 200.000 years ago, "

If the quasar died 200,000 years ago, how would we know this? If the quasar is 650 million LYs from Earth, wouldn't the evidence of its death take 650 million years to reach us?

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[John Hasler]

That depends on what you mean by "now".

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Moryath]

Sigh.

So little time to point to other green blobs.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[slick7]

Wait... what? There are articles?

I once saw this on Star Trek (TOS). We won.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[ErroneousBee]

The Voorwerp and galaxy are both 650 million light years away from Earth, and they are about 200,000 light years away from each other.

I think this is the timeline ( I do a bit of galaxyzoo now and then):

So ( about 650 million ) + ( some millions ) of years ago the galaxy had a big ole black hole in the middle, which was gobbling up matter in the galaxy. The matter fell into the hole like water down a drain, spinning round the hole as it fell in. All this spinning matter creates enormous magnetic fields that create jets at the poles of the spinning matter. The matter in these jets blasted off at sub-light speeds and became the voorwerp cloud in space. There should be a cloud on the opposite side of the galaxy, but I havent seen any mention of this, so it entirely possible that the cloud was there anyway and was not shot out of the galaxy.

So we now have a galaxy and a cloud of gas nearby.

Then ( about 650 million ) + ( a few million ) years ago the galaxy is a Quasar, the black hole in the middle is powering a massive outpouring of light, the whole of the middle of the galaxy is glowing, and that light is running off into space and causing the voorwerp cloud to glow. Pressure from the light is also causing the cloud to collapse and start forming stars.

So we have a really bright galaxy (Quasar) and a glowing gas cloud.

Then ( about 650 million ) + ( about 200,000 ) years ago the black hole stops gobbling matter and can no longer power the Quasar. The galaxy stops glowing, but its massive light outpouring is still travelling through space and is still causing the Voorwerp cloud to glow.

Then ( about 650 million ) years ago is the picture we see today:

1. A Galaxy looking pretty normal.
2. A cloud of gas that is glowing as it is still illuminated by light that took 200,000 years to get from the galaxy to the cloud.
3. We see stars in the cloud that are no older than a few millions of years old, as the Quasar started up, light pressure caused the gas cloud to collapse into stars and has now shut down again.

In the future the cloud will stop glowing as the wave of Quasar light passes through it and is gone. There will still be stars that we can view. The Voorwerp will become a dwarf galaxy orbiting the ex-quasar galaxy.

From the above time line, we infer these facts:

• The galaxy is not glowing like a quasar, but the voorwerp 2000,000 light years away is under full illumination from the Quasar. So the Quasar has gone from full blast to completly shut down in 200,000 years.
• The stars in the voorwerp are only a couple of million years old, so the Voorwerp was only illuminated by the Quasar for a few million years.

Notes:

• The sun is about 4 billion years old.
• The green colour mentioned in the article is simply the fact that hot oxygen emits radiation at a specific wavelength that is not actually green, but has to be represented as a colour in telescope images for us to view. This wavelength just happens to be represented as green by Hubble. It was Blue in the galaxyzoo image (supplied by the Sloan automatic survey scope).
• This never gets mentioned, but Hanny had a hairstyle and guitar that made her like a bloke in her avatar image on galaxyzoo.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[bhcompy]

I read it for the goatse

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Spazztastic]

That depends on what you mean by "now".

*head explodes*

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[amRadioHed]

You're trying to be too clever, the lights travel time is irrelevant. When light from an event reaches us, that is when the event happened as far as we are concerned.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[amRadioHed]

650 million years has nothing to do with anything, that's only the lights travel time. Ignore it. The quasar stopped 200,000 years ago from our frame of reference. The lights travel time to get to earth is irrelevant and seems to be only confusing you.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[russotto]

The green colour mentioned in the article is simply the fact that hot oxygen emits radiation at a specific wavelength that is not actually green, but has to be represented as a colour in telescope images for us to view. This wavelength just happens to be represented as green by Hubble. It was Blue in the galaxyzoo image (supplied by the Sloan automatic survey scope).

It really is green, see http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/research/voorwerp.html. Blue is

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[CODiNE]

It's news to me! I only read Slashdot for the pictures.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Waffle Iron]

a gas cloud who was irradiated until recently by a now dead quasar.

a gas cloud who was irradiated until 650 million years ago by a now dead quasar.

That depends on the frame of reference of the observer. For example, from the point of view of the actual photons we're receiving (which travel at the speed of light), the same instant they get emitted from the gas cloud they slam into our telescopes. For them, there is no delay at all between the two events.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Poingggg]

Maybe you'd want to know how it's pronounced. The 'oo' part in 'Voorwerp' is pronounced like the one in 'door'. In fact, if you replace the 'd' with a 'v' it's just right. The 'e' is like the 'e' in 'help'. The 'r' should be a bit more rolling as the English 'r', but here in the Netherlands are plenty people using the (in my ears incredibly annoying when used in Dutch) English 'r', so when you take the first two hints it'll be good enough.
(En laat die Gooise kakkers eens een fatsoenlijke 'r' leren, in plaats van die irritante 'ewr' :-) ) -- (off topic Duch snear to users of the English 'r' in Dutch)

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Raenex]

For those that don't get the joke:

The Incredible Hulk Opening Theme

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Why not?

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Suki I]

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

Why not?

Darn, you beat me to it :(

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[DavMz]

tl;dr

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[fishexe]

It's news to me! I only read Slashdot for the pictures.

You must mean the pictures of Hanny van Arkel.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[Intrepid imaginaut]

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

It was a test of slashdot chops, anyone who clicked the link before posting was IP banned.

We have standards to maintain, you know.

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[LongearedBat]

No, no, no. One can clearly see that it's a giant bug with a huge pincer. Either it's made of green ectoplasm or conjured up by evil magic.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/11/voorwerp/

Re:And for those not interested in reading TFA

[gomiam]

I may be mistaken, but having a quasar just 200.000 light-years from here would probably mean all life on Earth would have been annihilated some time ago. Just consider that the diametre of the Milky Way (our galaxy) is 100.000 light years. As such, it seems more reasonable to conclude that the quasar was 200.000 light-years away from the cloud, which is, itself 650 million light-years away from us. I don't want to think what a stream of radiation able to reach through 650 million light-years would do to something just 200.000 light-years away :)

Misleading Title?

[Monkeedude1212]

The summary leads me to believe that we've only gotten better images, and that we still have yet to confirm what it is. Am I right or wrong?

Re:Misleading Title?

[TheCRAIGGERS]

Title: "Hubble Confirms..."
Summary: "...may finally confirm..."

In the submitter's defense, the article is just as confused.

Re:Misleading Title?

[gman003]

A theory, widely considered "plausible", was made last year. New evidence confirms it, making it more-or-less "confirmed".

Reminds me of a Star Trek quote

[Kufat]

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

Re:Reminds me of a Star Trek quote

[syousef]

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

Kirk: Because Hanny is a hottie who found something any geek worth their salt thinks is cool, and she can call it anything she likes. Be thankful she didn't call it Hanny's BonesIsAPooHead. Now if only she were green...and had 3 breasts!

Re:Reminds me of a Star Trek quote

[Dachannien]

Only the Dutch could take a word like "object" and make it sound so..... naughty.

Re:Reminds me of a Star Trek quote

[grikdog]

Only the Dutch could take a word like "object" and make it sound so..... naughty.

Hairsplitting ("mierenneuken") is even more psychically formidable in tje urginal Dertch (slapping down wooden alien hand).

Re:Reminds me of a Star Trek quote

[Sulphur]

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

Kirk: Because Hanny is a hottie who found something any geek worth their salt thinks is cool, and she can call it anything she likes. Be thankful she didn't call it Hanny's BonesIsAPooHead. Now if only she were green...and had 3 breasts!

Humble Telescope reveals all.

Re:Reminds me of a Star Trek quote

[fishexe]

Rimmer: Because if we called it "a time hole" we'd get in an argument and then crash into it.

Gratuitous black-belt hamster reference.

[crakbone]

"Was found to be a type of radioactive jello. A space mission with hamsters was expected to be sent shortly. "

Interesting

[gman003]

The article also brings up an interesting point: since the glow is caused by radiation from a quasar a few hundred thousand light years away, but that quasar is not currently active, it means that quasars can die extremely quickly, in about 200,000 years if TFA is correct. That's a blink of an eye in astronomic terms.

It also counts as physical evidence for black holes evaporating, which is good.

Re:Interesting

[wiredog]

It also counts as physical evidence for black holes evaporating,

Or perhaps there isn't enough gas falling into it to excite it.

Re:Interesting

[InsurrctionConsltant]

Nope, even then. You need to read up a little about the timeframes here.

The evaporation of black holes according to Hawking radiation is an unimaginably, incomprehensibly, comically slow process. So slow, that in this universe, the passive absorption of the cosmic microwave background is sufficient to render it irrelevant –the black hole still absorbs background photons at a greater rate than it generates radiation:

A stellar black hole of one solar mass has a Hawking temperature of about 100 nanokelvins. This is far less than the 2.7 K temperature of the cosmic microwave background. Stellar mass (and larger) black holes receive more mass from the cosmic microwave background than they emit through Hawking radiation and will thus grow instead of shrink. To have a Hawking temperature larger than 2.7 K (and be able to evaporate), a black hole needs to be lighter than the Moon (and therefore a diameter of less than a tenth of a millimeter). (wikipedia.org)

Elsewhere I have seen the figure of 10^61 times the age of the universe for the evaporation (and this is in a black-body condition: no matter absorbed whatsoever) of a BH of merely 30 solar masses. Recall we are talking about a Quasar: something hundreds of millions of solar masses and up. These things have lifetimes so vast as to render even the word "astronomical" meaninglessly trifling. Think numbers of years with more digits than you could write in your lifetime.

Re:Interesting

[InsurrctionConsltant]

Oh my apologies. To be fair, your post was ambiguous. I thought you were saying the black hole isn't consuming matter, therefore it was evaporating faster. In fact you were suggesting it is merely inactive, which is another reason the OP’s conclusion is erroneous. I hope the OP found what I wrote informative, anyway.

Re:Interesting

[InsurrctionConsltant]

Precisely. Black holes can't "die extremely quickly" –they evaporate unimaginably slowly. (See my other replies.) They can, however, become inactive at the drop of a hat –if & when the accretion disc becomes depleted.

Re:Interesting

[Coren22]

The article on Bad Astronomy actually specifically mentions that the black hole is no longer consuming matter. The AC did not say the black hole evaporated, but that it is no longer consuming matter, therefore there are no jets. Perhaps you meant to respond to gman003?

Re:Interesting

[InsurrctionConsltant]

I misunderstood the parent to my post –sorry. My response was elaborating on the first AC who pointed out gman003's misconception – trying to add some figures.

I think a lot of people have heard that "block holes gradually evaporate", without having read any further, making the erroneous assumption about the timeframes involved is understandable.

In fact:

1. large black holes evaporate so slowly they are likely to be the most long-lived objects in the universe
2. at the current background radiation level of the universe, even small black holes absorb much more radiation than they emit, and are therefore growing at the present time
3. quasars are enormous black holes –many millions of solar masses –and are therefore calculated to be emitting radiation ("evaporating") so slowly as to result in a mathematical absurdity.

Re:Interesting

[ceoyoyo]

Black holes can "die extremely quickly." BIG ones can't.

Since we're striving for accuracy and all.

Re:Interesting

[InsurrctionConsltant]

Heh - true.

It's interesting to note how small they have to be, though: according to wikipedia, to radiate more than the it absorbs from the cosmic miscrowave background, the BH would have to be lighter than the moon. In other words, since the microwave background is always decreasing, all stellar-remnant BHs in the universe have always been, and are still (and for the next N times the age of the universe, will remain) increasing in size.

Re:Interesting

[InsurrctionConsltant]

(PS –there's "striving for accuracy", and there's "trying to correct an error billions of orders of magnitude in size"... ! :P

Re:Interesting

[Kjella]

Elsewhere I have seen the figure of 10^61 times the age of the universe for the evaporation (and this is in a black-body condition: no matter absorbed whatsoever) of a BH of merely 30 solar masses. Recall we are talking about a Quasar: something hundreds of millions of solar masses and up. These things have lifetimes so vast as to render even the word "astronomical" meaninglessly trifling. Think numbers of years with more digits than you could write in your lifetime.

Uh, no. The universe is about 13,750,000,000 years old. 10^61 times that is 137,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. Not so hard was it?

Re:Interesting

[khallow]

10^61 is for a black hole with 30 solar masses. The black hole he's talking about has a mass at least 10^7 times greater *plus* a far lower mass loss rate (it won't even start losing mass until the cosmic microwave background cools for a long time, assuming it doesn't consume other similar sized black holes in the meantime).

Re:Interesting

[InsurrctionConsltant]

This is correct.

Even so, I may have been exaggerating, looking at the equations on the Hawking Radiation wikipedia page.

I am so spending this weekend making a Black Hole Evaporation Time Estimator app.

Re:Interesting

[khallow]

I am so spending this weekend making a Black Hole Evaporation Time Estimator app.

No pressure or anything, but this is probably the project with the longest deadline ever.

Re:Interesting

[Kjella]

So what? Make it 10^100 then, it's only a few more digits and certainly not "more zeros than you could write in a lifetime". You're really nitpicking here...

Re:Interesting

[khallow]

So what? Make it 10^100 then, it's only a few more digits and certainly not "more zeros than you could write in a lifetime". You're really nitpicking here...

You're right. I don't know how blackhole lifespan would increase with time, but even with these extraordinary times, there's only so much mass-energy that they'll run into (especially in an expanding universe). Once that's gone, then it's just a matter of decay over long enough periods of time. And you don't have to add zeroes for long before you reach those times.

Re:Interesting

[khallow]

Googol timescales are sufficient to disintegrate every proton and neutron in the universe. Only radiation remains.

Blackholes aren't protons or neutrons. A black hole that has a significant portion of the mass of the observable universe is going to be around for a while. And this says nothing about protons and neutrons created later. Vacuum particle pair creation will still result in a small number of protons and other complex quark-based particles.

What is that green smudge?

[UnknowingFool]

Initial imaging of Hanny's Voorwerp by a wide range of telescopes on the ground and in space indicated that it was a giant cloud of hot gas.

Excuse me! I had chili for lunch. Extra beans. Thanks I'll be here all week. Tip your waitstaff.

Re:What is that green smudge?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Thanks I'll be here all week. Tip your waitstaff.

Try the waitress, tip the veal. Tastes better; lasts longer.

Some new kind of kink

[PolygamousRanchKid]

.. 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 ...

Re:Some new kind of kink

[jgagnon]

Which is so much better than boring irradiation from "living" quasars...

Re:Some new kind of kink

[fishexe]

If the mere presence of the word "excited" is enough to turn something into a sexual innuendo, I think that's a sign you need to get laid.

Intergalactic snot.

[olsmeister]

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

Re:Intergalactic snot.

[circletimessquare]

Cthulhu does not get a cold. A cold gets a Cthulhu. In this way, Cthulhu is sort of like Chuck Norris. Now don't even get me started on the terror known as Cthulhuck Norris

Re:Intergalactic snot.

[MozeeToby]

At last, conclusive evidence that the Great Green Arkleseizure is the creator (or at least, the origin) of the universe. Now we just have to worry about the Coming of the Great White Hanky.

not just here vs there

[tverbeek]

I'm used to thinking about the fact that objects "out there" are mind-bogglingly far away from us, such that their light takes eons to reach us. This is a reminder that they are also mind-bogglingly far away from each other.

This was identified in the 70s.

[NevDull]

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.

This was identified in Futurama

[Ukab the Great]

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

Re:This was identified in Futurama

[imakemusic]

Star Trek?! Hand over your geek card, now!

Re:This was identified in Futurama

[uberjack]

"Melllvar" has 3 "L"'s. One would hope that you'd done enough Star Trek conventions to know how to spell "Melllvar"

Re:This was identified in Futurama

[fishexe]

Star Trek?! Hand over your geek card, now!

*whoosh*

Maybe you should hand over yours?

Anger = red glow, jealous = green glow.

[crovira]

Okay. Its green with jealousy (or envy.)

Or someone just got sick after drinking Chartreuse.

Shouldn't that read....

[Dcnjoe60]

Shouldn't that read "Hubble telescope allows astronomers to confirm nature of mysterious green blob?" Unless, that is, there was a really big upgrade to the telescope that has been kept secret!

Re:Shouldn't that read....

[Coren22]

Or Hubble came back from the dead to confirm it.

Detailed Explanation

[Waveney]

For a detailed explanation see Bill Keels post http://blogs.zooniverse.org/galaxyzoo/2011/01/10/hannys-voorwerp-and-hubble-what-did-we-learn/

Re:Detailed Explanation

[davros-too]

+1 informative, thanks

do not taunt happy green cloud?

[Mathinker]

> You don't want to make that cloud angry.

Do not taunt happy green cloud?

hmm...

[hitmark]

looks like a Vorlon ship to me...

DeCloaking Romulan WarFrog?

[aoeu]

srsly

These are commonly found in the home.

[cvtan]

I just opened my fridge and found a mysterious green blob. I for one welcome our all-powerful voorwerp overlords.

Hanny's voorwerp is made of people!

[GodfatherofSoul]

Oh, the humanity!

Ob Dave Barry

[sconeu]

"Hanny's Voorwerp" would be a great name for a Rock Band.

Re:Ob Dave Barry

[arth1]

Not really, as English speakers in general and US Americans in particular wouldn't be able to pronounce Voorwerp.
Case in point: Jason Voorhees

Re:Ob Dave Barry

[eriqk]

Which is precisely why it's a good name for a band.

Re:Ob Dave Barry

[rvw14]

Only if it has a misplaced umlaut over the e.

Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

Kirk: What about the Quasar?
Bones: It's dead, Jim.

Image Search

[BJ_Covert_Action]

I'm just going to float this out there. It's not really relevant to the article, nor is it particularly valuable to any discussion, but the discoverer of the Voorwerp, Hanny Van Arkely, is absolutely lovely. Many 'dotters could probably kill an hour or two sifting through her images on Google.

Re:Image Search

[fishexe]

I'm just going to float this out there. It's not really relevant to the article, nor is it particularly valuable to any discussion, but the discoverer of the Voorwerp, Hanny Van Arkely, is absolutely lovely. Many 'dotters could probably kill an hour or two sifting through her images on Google.

Not to mention, she's an amateur sterrenkundige. If that doesn't get a nerd hot and bothered, I don't know what will.

Obvious

[SnarfQuest]

This is obvious to anyone who has ever been around kids. A large green blob, it's obviously snot.

Re:How can a black hole emit something?

[amRadioHed]

The stuff that's emitted isn't actually coming from the black hole, it comes from the accretion disk around the black hole. Do some reading on quasars for more information.

Re:How can a black hole emit something?

[Chris Burke]

It's actually emitted by the disk of material that is in the process of being sucked into the black hole, which is spinning extremely fast and becomes extremely hot. Some of it ends up getting spewed out from the poles. So it's a byproduct of the process by which the black hole eats things.

Color of the night sky?

[synth7]

So there's some young stars contained within that glowing green cloud... and that makes me wonder if (should the radiation be low enough that life could flourish) the night sky on the worlds that orbit those stars would glow bright green across the heavens. Also, is the effect inside the cloud enough that it is akin to our daytime atmosphere in that it occludes visibility of the dimmer objects in the sky?

Does anyone else see a bunch of errors....

[Antisyzygy]

I've noticed quite a few errors in this article. Example : "Such active galaxies are also known as quasars".

Green blob?

[DrStoooopid]

Well it *IS* flu season.

How Has This Not Appeared on Futurama?

[crunchygranola]

Okay only discovered in 2007, but the latest batch of episodes were done after that time.

I imagine the Professor proposing to enter "Hanny's Voorwerp", which is treated as an off-color remark.