Mystery Cosmic object found
November 29th 2008 12:45
A school teacher from the Netherlands, Hanny van Arkel a volunteer in the Galaxy Zoo a project that allows members of the public to take part in astronomy research online, discovered a mystery object some observers are calling a "cosmic ghost."
The image of a strange, gaseous object with a hole was spotted by van Arkel while using the www.galaxyzoo.org website to classify images of galaxies.
During one of her assignments, the amateur astronomer says she saw something that "looked like a regular galaxy but much bluer." Van Arkel said that she had no idea her discovery was so important until she spoke with Galaxy Zoo's scientists, affectionately called Zoo Keepers.
When she posted the information about the image she had seen online it soon became known as "Hanny's Voorwerp" ( Dutch for "object") on the Galaxy Zoo blog site. Astronomers who run the site began to investigate the image in question and soon realized van Arkel might have found a new class of astronomical object.
"At first, we had no idea what it was. It could have been in our solar system, or at the edge of the universe," said Schawinski, a member and co-founder of the Galaxy Zoo team
The object didn't contain any stars." The object is made entirely of gas so hot about 10,000 Celsius that the astronomers felt it had to be illuminated by something powerful.
Since there was no obvious source at hand in the Voorwerp itself, the team looked to find the source of illumination around the Voorwerp, and soon turned to the nearby galaxy IC 2497.
This discovery really shows how citizens can particpate in science Hanny's attentiveness alerted astronomers not only to a peculiar object, but to a window into the cosmic past which might have postponed the find for some time to come. Trying to understand the processes operating here has proven to be a fascinating challenge, involving a whole range of astrophysical techniques and instruments around the world and beyond. This has also been some of the most rewarding astronomy that's been undertaken in years.
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