Hannny's Voorwerp

A couple weeks ago I wrote a short post about Hanny's Voorwerp, a mysterious object discovered recently through the Galaxy Zoo program. Not too long after that, I stumbled upon this awesome Hubble image of the Voorwerp:

IC 2479 & Hanny's Voorwerp

At the top you can see the galaxy IC 2479, its spiral structure clearly visible. Below it is Hanny's Voorwerp in all its glory. The green color comes from excited oxygen, while near the middle of the picture the yellow glow comes from where the gas is being compressed to form new stars. This is one of those cases where a picture is worth a thousand words, and since I don't feel like writing a thousand words tonight, you get this pretty picture instead. A hui hou!