Here’s what really happened to Hanny’s Voorwerp

Astronomers can finally explain a gas cloud’s strange glow

Hanny’s Voorwerp

GLOWING GAS  Hanny’s Voorwerp, the greenish smudge at the left of this image, is glowing thanks to photons from a feasting black hole in the galaxy at right.

NASA, ESA, W. Keel (Univ. Alabama), et al., Galaxy Zoo Team

The weird glowing blob of gas known as Hanny’s Voorwerp was a 10-year-old mystery.