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Panich52

(5,829 posts)
Sat Apr 4, 2015, 12:06 PM Apr 2015

Hubble finds phantom objects near dead quasars

Hubble finds phantom objects near dead quasars

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/Ul1rMhIe_o4/150402114653.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a set of wispy, goblin-green objects that are the ephemeral ghosts of quasars that flickered to life and then faded. The eight unusual looped structures may offer insights into the puzzling behaviors of galaxies with energetic cores.

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Hubble finds phantom objects near dead quasars (Original Post) Panich52 Apr 2015 OP
Astronomy Picture of the Day Ptah Apr 2015 #1
I wish we could see the wispy goblins LuvNewcastle Apr 2015 #2
I think I saw them at Coachella (n/t) William Seger Apr 2015 #4
Methinks they be dragons LiberalEsto Apr 2015 #3

Ptah

(32,983 posts)
1. Astronomy Picture of the Day
Sat Apr 4, 2015, 12:39 PM
Apr 2015


Voorwerpjes in Space
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, William Keel (Univ. Alabama)

Explanation: Mysterious Hanny's Voorwerp, Dutch for "Hanny's Object", is really enormous,
about the size of the Milky Way Galaxy and glowing strongly in the greenish light produced
by ionized oxygen atoms. It is thought to be a tidal tail of material left by an ancient galaxy
merger, illuminated and ionized by the outburst of a quasar inhabiting the center of distant
spiral galaxy IC 2497. Its exciting 2007 discovery by Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel
while participating online in the Galaxy Zoo project has since inspired a search and discovery
of eight more eerie green cosmic features. Imaged in these panels by the Hubble Space Telescope,
all eight appear near galaxies with energetic cores. Far outside their associated galaxies, these
objects are also likely echoes of quasar activity, illuminated only as light from a core quasar
outburst reaches them and ultimately fading tens of thousands of years after the quasar outburst
itself has faded away. Of course a galaxy merger like the impending merger of our own Milky Way
and the Andromeda Galaxy, could also trigger the birth of a quasar that would illuminate our
distant future version of Hanny's Voorwerp.


http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150404.html

LuvNewcastle

(16,820 posts)
2. I wish we could see the wispy goblins
Sat Apr 4, 2015, 12:48 PM
Apr 2015

in our night sky. That would look especially cool on Halloween night with a full moon.

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