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Hubble finds ghostly object in deep space
There's a green blob in space, but unlike a bad science fiction movie, it's not coming to take over Earth. Probably.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a green cloud of gas about 650 million light-years from Earth. It's been named Hanny's Voorwerp, Dutch for Hanny's Object.
The object is illuminated by a beam of light from a quasar that may have gone dark 200,000 years ago, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
The Voorwerp is about the size of our Milky Way galaxy and is part of a 300,000-light-year-long stream of gas, the institute says. The green color is from glowing oxygen.
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, according to the institute.
"This phenomenon is similar to a fly on a movie projector lens casting a shadow on a movie screen," the institute says.
The object may have been formed by a collision of two galaxies, according to the institute.
But don't worry. It won't bump into our galaxy within our lifetime.
Probably.
who farted!??!
That's simple that's the remains of the planet Kripton this is all that's left of Superman's home just green gas made completely of Kriptonite .
The earth and universe are 5,000 years old. Therefore, nothing can be larger than 5,000 light years. God did not just create tthe earth in six days, He created the heavens and the firmamment too.
Too funny....people actually believe that bible crap...religion takes all the thinking out of everything....bet this fool thinks the world is ending next year too...hahahaha
What's really funny is that the 2012 thing is based on Mayan theology – not Christian. So are they saying Christianity isn't the only 'correct' religion?
By your own logic then, the galaxy we live in cannot be more than 5,000 ly across, and is in fact much smaller due to the fact that but your reasoning, the UNIVERSE cannot be bigger than 5,000 ly.
First of all, bible scholars are facepalming because you missed the mark by about 1,000 years... They suggest the earth is roughly 6,000 years old.
Second, you aren't taking the awesome and omnipotent power of god into consideration. You are limiting him to the speed of light, when (by your own theology) he CREATED light. Who says he couldn't have created all the light in the universe at once, reguardless of the distances involved. And if I recall the bible correctly it states "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. And the earth was without form." Sounds to me like God created everything first, the crushed everything into this ball of mud we call earth and the big firey thing in the sky we call a sun. Of course God created the ball of mud called earth in a single day, because at the time a single day could extend for an infinite time! No planet, no rotation of the big ball of mud, no sunrise/sunset and thus no days.
Your ignorance of biblical statement as well as your lack of scholarly pursuit places you solidly in the fold of the mindless sheep that run where the power-mongering and malicious leaderships lead.
Okay, leviticus... here's a challenge for you... if God makes things appear to be millions of light years away, but they're really not, doesn't that mean that God is lying to us? That God has to resort to subterfuge and theater to whet our curiosity to make the universe and the Earth more interesting? If the heavens and the earth are only 5,000 years old, shouldn't God provide at least some shred of astronomical evidence? Google "Occam's Razor" and try again, dude.
GuerillaGorilla... not all theologists follow the Ibn Ezra estimate of the "young earth/universe" theology. In December 2010, only 40% of Americans believe in this line – percentage reduces sharply with the level of education. An interesting sidebar – people who identify themselves as "Republican" are 10% more likely to side with mr. leviticus here.
@Cliff Vegas – Actually I'm not an adherant to biblical theology, or the bible at all... I was just using the OPs own religious views to argue agains his post... Comparing apples to apples as it were...
@GuerillaGorilla... comparing apples to apples... interesting choice of metaphor.
@Cliff Vegas
While I don't have any predisposition to beleive that the Universe is only 5,000 years old...I have to take issue with what you said. You stated that if the Universe was only 5,000 years old, it would have a maximum radius of 5,000 Light-years. That is a rather boneheaded assumption!
You are forgetting about the early period of cosmological inflation that occurred very soon after the Big Bang. Because of that period of 'faster than light' expansion, the Universe is estimated to have a current radius of ~46.5 Billion Light-years rather than the ~13.7 Billion Light-year radius that it would otherwise have.
Perhaps you should go back and hit the books yourself a little more 🙂
@Cliff Vegas
My apologies. The above post was meant to be directed to GuerillaGorilla.
While I personally am a believer in the big bang theory-and therefore believe that the universe is about 13-14 billion years old-I still disagree with what your comment implies-that a creation 5,000 years ago would limit the age and size of the universe. G-d could have created a universe that was 13-14 billion year5s old-the day it was created. And of course, G-d could have made it any size he wanted (all assuming an omnipotent G-d).
thanks
Fred
@Dennis F – I was merely using the OP (Original posters) statement as a basis for my rebuttal. As stated I am not an adherant to creationism nor biblical theology. Personally I think the scientists are a bit off on their estimates, and the the universe is infinitely old. The known universe (that which we can percieve and that which we can scientifically prove) is roughly 12 billion years old, but what about that which we can't percieve... what if there were a series of "Big Bangs" in the infinite reaches of space with an infinite number of infinitely dense locations? Who is to say that everything everywhere came from one origin? While we have made great leaps in our knowledge, even scientists fall to the classic and age old blunder of self-importance. I love astrophysics (more of a hobby than a profession for me) and the discoveries we are making outside our own planet, but every single day I look up at the sky and think "If what scientists say is true, then what is one lightyear beyond the edge of the universe? What is 100 light years beyond it? What about 100,000 light years? This is why I honestly believe we live in an infinite universe, and the known universe is just the tiniest speck on the cosmic lens of what we can discover.
@Dennis F – for clarification here is the OPs post with emphasis on the statement I used to form my rebuttal:
"The earth and universe are 5,000 years old. >>>>Therefore, nothing can be larger than 5,000 light years.<<<< God did not just create tthe earth in six days, He created the heavens and the firmamment too."
The OPs statements states as point of fact that NOTHING can be larger than 5,000 lightyears. This includes the known, and unknown universe.
GuerillaGorilla: Those questions, about what is 100 miles beyond the edge of the Universe create a false premise. It is like asking "what is north of the North Pole" or what happened before the Big Bang.
thanks
Fred
This is just something to think about….
The best minds that humanity possesses have theorized that it began an estimated 13.7 Billion years ago when all the mass and energy that exists today erupted in a flash from a singularity (something very small) and began expanding.
For the first few moments after the initial flash, the Universe went through a stage of ‘faster than light’ expansion. That was the early cosmological inflation stage of the Universe. In that stage the universe expanded to a radius of ~32.8 Billion Light years. Since that time, it has expanded no faster than the speed of light and currently has an estimated radius of about 46.5 Billion Light years. That radius is ~4.4 E+26 meters. With that radius, the Universe would have a volume of ~3.6 E+89 cubic millimeters.
The Universe is unimaginably large. It is also unimaginably massive as well as unimaginably complex.
There are those who believe that the Universe came into existence entirely on its own. There are also those who believe that it could not have come into existence on its own and that it must have been created by a supreme being. I am not going to argue with either of those groups. I just want to point the following out.
Ponder the size of the Universe. If you believe that it could not come into existence by itself, and therefore must have been created by a supreme being, then ask yourself the following question.
As vast as the Universe is, if a creator was behind it, that creator would have to be orders of magnitude more vast and complex than the Universe is. If the Universe could not have come into existence on its own and must have been created…then you have to ask yourself ‘how could that creator have come into existence on his own?’ He is, after all, far more vast and complex than the Universe.
If the reason you believe in God is because you cannot imagine that the Universe came into existence on its own….then who (or what) created God.
@GuerillaGorilla
Thanks for pointing out that leviticusrocks was the originator of that 5,000 LY BS.
I guess I just didn't see LevitcusRocks' insignificant little rant while I was pondering larger things 🙂
Ok, so 2012 is near and the end is coming? That is why distances are getting shorter because things are coming faster at us. It is relativity in the object's reference frame. Hmmmm! Wonder if I should wait for the day before to have my last hamburger. Anybody could recommend which one will keep the taste in heaven?
The cheeseburger with onions from Boone Drug. Of course, it's been proven that a McDonald's burger will be with you for all eternity. 🙂
On behalf of fact-loving people with journalism degrees who are not scientifically illiterate, I say to CNN's Jim Kavanaugh: FAIL. Whenever you get around to fixing your aticle, while you're at it, why not mention something about Hanny van Arkel, the woman who *actually* found Hanny's Voorwerp via Galaxyzoo? Also, it was thanks to the scientists running Galaxyzoo who got NASA to direct the Hubble Space Telescope at Hanny's Voorwerp to check it out that you have a story to report.
Sorry, Jim, spelled your name wrong. I mean "Jim Kavanagh". See how quickly I was able to print a correction? It's not hard!
HAHAHA... my car has 300,000 miles on it. Also, this guy's humor is terrrRrrrible!
Reporter: (noun) Someone who trawls the web looking for stories to cut'n'paste.
IT IS THE FACE OF GOD.....!!
And we're made in His image? – scary thought...
The end of the world in 2012....what a joke...stupid bible thumpers...hahaha...when will they learn?...never...lol
The truly amusing thing is that the Bible most certainly does not give any date... so these "thumpers" are using a pagan calendar to come up with this nonsense.
Really... That 2012 nonsense is Mayan not Christian... Or did you mean the
Mayan bible?
Ok – this is important... why? Let me see – it's over 650 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS from earth – I take it that's further than the neighborhood 7-11 – and as with most things more than five minutes away, probably happened around the same 200,000 years ago that the hypothetical quasar "went dark" – guess they didn't go eco-friendly and use any of the 300,000-mile-long stream of gas to keep the power on. Damn aliens.
Its either Reapers or Tyranids.... some of you may know what I am talking about 🙂
One of our Mars rovers must have bumped into a Prothean beacon.
lol 🙂
Hi everyone, can we please keep the discussion relevant to the article? (Instead of complaining about how the report was written) kthxbye
since it was misreported, what shall we discuss? "oh what a lovely shade of green"?
How is discussing the content of the article not discussing the article...? Thanks for posting!
This article has no relevance to anything. The discovery of this object happened 3 years ago.
I like the gold color the best ;>)
Clearly it's the colour out of space
Man, this article makes such an interesting thing sound so incredibly boring. They don't mention that it's called Hanny's Voorwerp because it was discovered by a Dutch schoolteacher as part of the GalaxyZoo project, which lets amateurs contribute to the real classification of objects. This was a legitimately new phenomenon discovered by someone with no particular astronomy background. That's not even a very good picture of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanny%27s_Voorwerp
Ok, so 2012 is near and the end is coming? That is why distances are getting shorter because things are coming faster at us. It is relativity in the object's reference frame. Hmmmm! Wonder if I should wait for the day before to have my last hamburger. Anybody could recommend which one will keep the taste in heaven? CAN SOMEBODY HELP?