warpedskydiver 0 #1 January 11, 2011 Hubble telescope zeroes in on green blob in space This handout photo provided by NASA, taken April 12, 2010 by the Hubble Space Telescope, s... By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Mon Jan 10, 6:21 PM EST The Hubble Space Telescope got its first peek at a mysterious giant green blob in outer space and found that it's strangely alive. The bizarre glowing blob is giving birth to new stars, some only a couple million years old, in remote areas of the universe where stars don't normally form. The blob of gas was first discovered by a Dutch school teacher in 2007 and is named Hanny's Voorwerp (HAN'-nee's-FOR'-vehrp). Voorwerp is Dutch for object. NASA released the new Hubble photo Monday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. Parts of the green blob are collapsing and the resulting pressure from that is creating the stars. The stellar nurseries are outside of a normal galaxy, which is usually where stars live. That makes these "very lonely newborn stars" that are "in the middle of nowhere," said Bill Keel, the University of Alabama astronomer who examined the blob. The blob is the size of our own Milky Way galaxy and it is 650 million light years away. Each light year is about 6 trillion miles. The blob is mostly hydrogen gas swirling from a close encounter of two galaxies and it glows because it is illuminated by a quasar in one of the galaxies. A quasar is a bright object full of energy powered by a black hole. The blob was discovered by elementary school teacher Hanny van Arkel, who was 24 at the time, as part of a worldwide Galaxy Zoo project where everyday people can look at archived star photographs to catalog new objects. Van Arkel said when she first saw the odd object in 2007 it appeared blue and smaller. The Hubble photo provides a clear picture and better explanation for what is happening around the blob. "It actually looked like a blue smudge," van Arkel told The Associated Press. "Now it looks like dancing frog in the sky because it's green." She says she can even see what passes for arms and eyes. Since van Arkel's discovery, astronomers have looked for similar gas blobs and found 18 of them. But all of them are about half the size of Hanny's Voorwerp, Keel said. ___ Online: Hubble Space Telescope: http://www.spacetelescope.org/ Galaxy Zoo project: http://www.galaxyzoo.org Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mccurley 1 #2 January 11, 2011 http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1102a/Watch my video Fat Women http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWkEky8GoI Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
david3 0 #3 January 11, 2011 Quotehttp://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1102a/ Close up shot. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wayneflorida 0 #4 January 11, 2011 Oh no!! We need Steve Mcqueen again. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jtval 0 #5 January 11, 2011 I understand that a million years is relatively new compared to the age we think the universe is but don't they know that using terms like "The bizarre glowing blob is giving birth to new stars, some only a couple million years old, in remote areas of the universe where stars don't normally form." is dumb? Instead, saying something like "The bizarre glowing blob is giving birth to new stars, some only a couple million years old, in remote areas of the universe where stars aren't normally found" would make sense coming from the scientific minded. It just struck me as naive. But I am also aware that reporters probably have this story completely wrong, anyway. As long as they don't cross the beams when trying to capture the blob we'll be ok. Is it the coming of Zool/Zuel? (whatever the demon from ghostbusters name is)My photos My Videos Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warpedskydiver 0 #6 January 11, 2011 I have some reading on the topic if you like. Stars are usually formed in a molecular cloud, this one appears to be different than any of the others found. The gasses and dust have some mass, it takes quite a lot of time for them to gather, condense and then undergo a change due to pressure when fission begins. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
muff528 3 #7 January 11, 2011 Quote Oh no!! We need Steve Mcqueen again. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #8 January 11, 2011 Quote Oh no!! We need Steve Mcqueen again. Come on man.. this one is a fake.... EVERYONE knows the Blob is really the red menace Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
obelixtim 150 #9 January 11, 2011 I, for one, welcome our new amphibian overlords....My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
muff528 3 #10 January 12, 2011 Quote Quote Oh no!! We need Steve Mcqueen again. Come on man.. this one is a fake.... EVERYONE knows the Blob is really the red menace Uh-oh! It appears to be green in the telescope. That means ...it's coming towards us .... really, really fast!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PLFKING 4 #11 January 13, 2011 QuoteI, for one, welcome our new amphibian overlords.... "Mr. Brockman, we're back in 5.....4.....3.....2....." Don"When in doubt I whip it out, I got me a rock-and-roll band. It's a free-for-all." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
