Tuesday January 11, 2011

npr:

This really puts into perspective the laser pointer I use to play with my cat.

Back in 2007, as part of a crowdsourced study program called Galaxy Zoo, a Dutch school teacher discovered a very odd celestial object: It looked like a great, green blob floating in space and at the time it was inexplicable.

Today, thanks to the Hubble telescope, we have an unbelievable picture of Hanny’s Voorwerp, or Hanny’s Object, as it is now known. And we also have a better idea of what it is: Researchers said the blob is not a galaxy but a “twisting rope of gas, or tidal tail, about 300,000 light-years long that wraps around the galaxy [IC 2497].”

Hanny’s Voorwerp was lit up by a powerful, laser-like beacon of light called a quasar, which formed as a byproduct of the harsh conditions created by a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. The tail likely formed as the result of energy from two merging galaxies. That green light we see is glowing oxygen.

“We just missed catching the quasar because it turned off no more than 200,000 years ago, so what we’re seeing is the afterglow from the quasar,” said Dr. Bill Keel, professor of astronomy at the University of Alabama. (Sorry about the Auburn win yesterday, btw, Dr. Keel.) “This implies that it might flicker on and off, which is typical of quasars, but we’ve never seen such a dramatic change happen so rapidly.”