Discovery of a Voorwerp-like object

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Dear All,

I may as well "come out" and declare that I have discovered an object that is potentially very similar to Hanny's Voorwerp.
(anyone want to challenge my claim?)
The information about my discovery has already been relayed to the Galaxyzoo team of professional astronomers, and to one or two other professional astronomers.

I have been dredging up all manner of galaxian peculiarities and anomalies using the FUV and NUV images from the GALEX satellite, by means of the wonderful GalexView "virtual telescope".
[[ More about this later, as I have many more "weird wonders" to reveal to you in this forum!!]]

So, here is my discovery - the galaxy IC 223.....
note the strong FUV light coming from an isolated patch that is well outside of the main body of this galaxy.



The isolated patch of emission could well be visible in optical light, or narrowband H-alpha.

cheers,
Robert Lang

[PeterM]

Robert, I think this is just great, well deserved you are meticulous in your detail and I hope it does get a name hmmm "Roberts Madbadgalaxy" could be the go!
It is great so many IISers have had discoveries over the years and GalaxyZoo, Galex and other online resources are all there to be plundered right in your own home.
There are many large scopes due to come online and the massive data generated will be available for all to have ago at finding new, weird and wonderful objects.
Yet as Steve Crouch has shown recently, check your own images against other images for something that looks out of place. Now I wonder how that is progressing?

[atalas]

Congrats!very cool.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Originally Posted by PeterM

Robert, I think this is just great, well deserved you are meticulous in your detail and I hope it does get a name hmmm "Roberts Madbadgalaxy" could be the go!

Or just "The Mad Bad Galaxy"

Great stuff Rob good luck with the naming rights

Mike

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

I hope that the object near IC 223 turns out to be a "true" Voorwerp. It sure does look like a Voorwerp.

Real true Voorwerps are caused, it is believed, by a recently extinct quasar that has caused the gas in the Voorwerp to glow.

Certainly, my object has already turned out to be interesting enough for it to be investigated further by professional astronomers.

(incidentally, "Voorwerp" is just Dutch for the word "object")

Peter's point about the availability of virtual telescopes which can display images of much of the sky at various wavelengths, is a good one.
My initial impression about the GALEX far-ultraviolet images that are so easily displayed in GalexView, is that this UV imagery has hardly been mined, as yet, especially for southern sky fields.
(I am hanging out for sky southern sky imagery by the VISTA and SkyMapper projects...VISTA, in particular, will provide the first high resolution southern sky survey)

More later, but must get offline now.....

[Kal (Andrew)]

An interesting find you have there, will be interesting to see what comes of this

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Nice catch Robert. Congratulations!

Cheers

Steve

[Leonardo70 (Leonardo Orazi)]

Interesting and congratulation on discovery...thanks for details and info.

All the best,
Leo

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Leonardo,Steve, Kal, Mike, and friends,

Thank you for the encouraging words!

Your enthusiasm, and the fact of my having found something that is worthy of investigation by the pros, encourages me to try harder in my attempts to find anomalies/peculiarities in the population of galaxies.

As the history of science shows, it is not easy to actually discover something new.....great persistence is required.


cheers, Robert

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Wow that sure looks interesting, and yes it seems very 'Voorwerp-like'. Congratulations on finding this

[Ric]

Congratulations Robert

That is a great find, I'm sure you have spent many long hours leading up to this which makes it all that more rewarding.

[astroron (Ron)]

Wellk done Robert I hope you get a chance to give it a groovy name,something like Roberts Doodle .
You must have a lot of dedication to go through all those images and mine all the info you do .
Cheers

[Ken Crawford (KenC)]

Well done, the galaxy zoo is an amazing setup for sure!

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

The UV imaging data taken by GALEX is full of very unusual objects....it takes me only a few days to dredge up all manner of peculiar and anomalous galaxies!! The difficulty, for amateurs, is usually to discern what is genuinely unusual and what is "already known" by professional astronomers. For years, I often presented various "so-called-discoveries" to the pros, only to get the reply "nothing very unusual!!", but I have gradually become so familiar with the normal appearance of galaxies that I have slowly developed a real eye for things that "don't look quite right".

There are not a lot of people looking at this "hot" data, compared to the "masses" looking at the SDSS images. Further, from all I have read of the literature, it seems to me that professional astronomers have not really come to grips with all that can be found in the ultraviolet sky!

How to access GALEX images:

Just go to:
http://galex.stsci.edu/GalexView

Firstly, remember that the FUV band is coded as blue in these images.....that is where all the really weird stuff is! Yellow in these images codes for detected near-ultraviolet light, which is mainly from ordinary stellar photospheres.

(1) Tick the "full resolution" tick box at the top right.

(2) Untick the "Display Objects" tick box at top right....this removes a lot of confusing overlays.

(3) Tick the "display graphics" tick box, if you want a red ring to be shown around the target object.

(4) Tick the fourth icon from the left in the row of icons at top right. This has a small galaxy on it and it is called "Image Layout". This increases the size of the Virtual Sky display.

Lastly, one more very important step:

Often, when you use the "search for object" box to enter the co-ordinates or name of the desired target object, what comes up is only a noisy and short-exposure image of the field.
In many cases, a much better image is available of the same field; to get it, you go to the third icon from the left in the row of icons at top right. This icon has a sort of "grid" on it, and clicking this icon brings up a list of various available exposures......it is common enough to find a longer exposure of the same field, which is usually of much higher image quality.
_________________________

Here are two sample GALEX images (NGC 1313, NGC 1097), obtained using this GalexView interface:

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Dear all, here is a scientific update regarding the "Voorwerp" associated with IC 223.

Dr William Keel, an AGN specialist and a member of the Galaxyzoo professional scientists' team, recently wrote this to me regarding the Voorwerp that I discovered:

"
I'm writing something up on this to pass around for the next Galaxy Zoo team telecon tomorrow. Will forward PDF with pictures on IC 223 when I paste it together.


Quick summary - the blob near IC 223 is not a strong emission line object in the optical, not appearing in either [O III] or H-alpha images. I do see it in a broadband V image (but not R), quite faintly, which would make sense for a young stellar population - but one somehow without much ionized gas, which is a curious state. I haven't yet worked out just how blue it has to be from V to FUV bands. "

[Ross G]

Congratulations Robert.

Ross.

[madbadgalaxyman (Robert)]

Thanks for the congrats, Ross.

The FUV sky as revealed by GALEX is fascinating, strange, and very easily accessible from a local PC.

I have amassed a long list of FUV anomalies and peculiarities, despite the fact that I am actually quite slow to admit that a galaxy is actually peculiar (after many years of comparing 10s of thousands of galaxy images, I have a good appreciation of what is normal)