In this image by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, an unusual,
ghostly green blob of gas appears to float near a normal-
looking spiral galaxy. The bizarre object, dubbed Hanny's Voorwerp (Hanny's Object
in Dutch), is the only visible part of a 300,000-light-year-long
streamer of gas stretching around the galaxy, called IC 2497.
The greenish Voorwerp is visible because a searchlight beam
of light from the galaxy's core illuminated it. This beam came
from a quasar, a bright, energetic object that is powered by a
black hole. The quasar may have turned off about 200,000
years ago.
This Hubble view uncovers a pocket of star clusters, the
yellowish-orange area at the tip of Hanny's Voorwerp. The star
clusters are confined to an area that is a few thousand light-
years wide. The youngest stars are a couple of million years
old. The Voorwerp is the size of our Milky Way galaxy, and its
bright green color is from glowing oxygen.
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Place mouse over image to reveal the location of
Hanny's Voorwerp in the Hubble infrared image.
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Hubble also shows that gas flowing from IC 2497 may have
instigated the star birth by compressing the gas in Hanny's
Voorwerp. The galaxy is located about 650 million light-years
from Earth.
What appears to be a gaping hole in Hanny's Voorwerp actually
may be a shadow cast by an object in the quasar's light path.
The feature gives the illusion of a hole about 20,000
light-years wide. Hubble reveals sharp edges but no other changes
in the gas around the apparent opening, suggesting that an
object close to the quasar may have blocked some of the light
and projected a shadow on the Voorwerp. This phenomenon is
similar to a fly on a movie projector lens casting a shadow on a
movie screen.
An interaction between IC 2497 and another galaxy about a
billion years ago may have created Hanny's Voorwerp and
fueled the quasar. The Hubble image shows that IC 2497 has
been disturbed, with complex dust patches, warped spiral
arms, and regions of star formation around its core. These
features suggest the aftermath of a galaxy merger. The bright
spots in the central part of the galaxy are star-forming regions.
The small, pinkish object to the lower right of IC 2497 is an
edge-on spiral galaxy in the background.
The image was made by combining data from the Advanced
Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
The ACS exposures were taken April 12, 2010; the WFC3 data,
April 4, 2010.
Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)
