Galaxy Zoo Produces a Rare Specimen

We discussed the Galaxy Zoo project soon after it launched last summer. Science News is now following developments about an odd celestial object that is fueling a lot of excitement among astronomers around the world. In August, a Dutch schoolteacher named Hanny, in the process of characterizing galaxy images, noticed a peculiar object and posted a query about it on the Galaxy Zoo blog. She called it a "Voorwerp," which Science News says is Dutch for "thing" but which Google translates as "subject." Hanny's Voorwerp emits mostly green light (the earlier report said blue). The best guess astronomers have now is that the Voorwerp is emitting "ghost light," i.e. it is "lit by the ultraviolet light and X-rays from a quasar that has vanished in the last 100,000 years," to quote astronomer Bill Keel. "As far as we can tell, it's an unprecedented thing," Keel added. Researchers are scrambling to book time on the Hubble and other major telescopes to get a closer look.

Re:Voorwerp = Thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably the English word "object" would be more appropriate here then "thing". And as a plus, it directly translates to Dutch and back again.

Re:Voorwerp = Thing

[denver38]

Indeed, and it's not "thing" neither ("ding"). I would call it an "object".

Re:image in the post?

[hengdi]

And just about the shortest amount of time that any image has ever taken to be slashdotted, as well!

Re:What's the rush?

[John Hasler]

To beat the other astronomers.

Re:What's the rush?

[Antique Geekmeister]

The credit for the first paper to explain it, or to give the most feasible explanations cited by the next crop of graduate students, isn't going to be available for long. Discovering genuinely new classes of celestial objects depends very much on timing.

Re:image in the post?

[b4dc0d3r]

And given the number of readers here, hotlinking images like that could be seen as malicious.

ALL TAKE NOTE

[pkphy39]

Quite possibly the first time in history that a joke became MORE funny after being explained. Kudos.