IC 2497 and Its Luminescent “Blob”

Hanny’s Voorwerp, discovered by chance in 2007, is a mass of intergalactic gas with a faint luminescence probably caused by the radiation emitted by a nearby quasar that is now extinct

Credit: NASA, ESA, William Keel, and the Galaxy Zoo team — The spiral galaxy IC 2497 and, below, the so-called Hanny’s Voorwerp

IC 2497 is a spiral galaxy located in the Northern constellation Leo Minor (the smaller lion). The…