The gas cloud is still keeping the authors of the paper about it busy and it’s getting proposals accepted so, fine, thanks. One of the recently accepted proposals was the one for the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, where they found out some interesting new facts (I’ve been told). But to make this story complete, let’s start at the beginning…
Once upon a time there was a bunch of zooites sitting in a pub in England, drinking beer (and orange juice). One of them was zookeeper Chris. The others wanted to know what that often heard term ‘light echo’ exactly meant and so they asked the zookeeper. He held his beer glass in his hand and said: “This is the Voorwerp… And this empty glass here is the Earth…”
Here’s the evidence of that, which I took with my mobile phone camera.
His explanation was brilliant. We all understood. However, when I was home from that evening I told Edd I’d still have a problem explaining it to others myself, as it’s not easy to take beer glasses into a classroom (or to places where I’m giving lectures about it) and so he helped me making this wonderful animation – if I say so myself – which any layman (read: me) would understand.
This animation is part of my presentation and showed what we initially thought Hanny’s Voorwerp was. We still think it’s a light echo, but recent observations of the ASTRON team also showed that there’s lots more gas around the Voorwerp, which was probably pulled out of another galaxy by IC 2497, as the two passed close to each other. And they (we) also observed the jet from IC 2497, which is not very common.
Furthermore the hardworking zookeeper Kevin, who I like for his just-do-it-mentality, just announced on the Galaxy Zoo blog that the XMM-Newton proposal was accepted too! So, happy new year to Hanny’s Voorwerp – which is going to be the year of Astronomy too!
4 Comments
A very novel way to explain a ‘light echo’, I’ll agree. Hey, that was a great day, too.:)
Tommy. x
Ooh, thanks to Edd for his help in making the animation/presentation to show up. Keep clicking to see it.
I am a zooite and a fan of yours. Your discovery is simply breathtaking, you know! I have told a lot of friends about the object. One could spend many happy hours at your website. This is just my first trip. I hope what I am about to say gets a lol out of you. Hanny’s Voorwerp looks like a joyous dancing frog! See you at the Zoo and best wishes.
Hi Jim, it does, thanks for your comment!
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