No doubt many people who hang out here know of the
Galaxy Zoo citizen science project. Probably many have also signed up, and spent a pleasant hour or two classifying galaxies.
But did you know that there's
a forum associated with Galaxy Zoo? It was on this forum that the object which became known as Hanny's Voorwerp was first announced.
This APOD, from over a year ago, covers some recent observations of it.
So, I was idly browsing the forum the other day, and came across a thread entitled
An enigma wrapped in a riddle (surrounded by emptiness?). It's about a galaxy with a strange shape; here's the SDSS thumbnail image:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/zoo2_extra/277431.jpg
It seems no one over at the GZ forum really knows why it has such an odd shape (though several zooites - as they call themselves - have posted some suggestions). And I wondered if anyone here has seen it before, and whether anyone has any idea what it might be?