Looking at this Hubble image, you might think it's another run-of-the-mill yet spectacular spiral galaxy, nearly edge-on, with a pretty spiral in the background. But then you let your eyes scan down to the bottom...
Hey, what the heck is that giant green thing? That, me droogs, is Hanny's Voorwerp. Click the image to, um, to... envoorwerpenate. OK, you ask, what's a Voorwerp? Well, it's Dutch for "thing". Doesn't help much, though, does it? All right then, let's back up a bit: Hanny van Arkel, who discovered it, is not an astronomer. But she was reading a blog entry by Brian May, who is the guitarist for Queen as well as an astronomer. He had written about Galaxy Zoo, a project where you can classify galaxies on your computer. Being a Queen fan, Hanny checked it out, and started looking at galaxies... which is how she found this weird green ...
