Our own paper covering the discovery of Hanny’s Voorwerp is still working it’s way through the refereeing process. We’ve come up against a referee who really understands the subject and it’s taking time to put right our numerous missteps and to make everything clear. A new version will be submitted in the next couple of days, so hopefully you’ll be able to read it soon.
In the meantime, a group of Dutch radio astronomers have published a paper reporting their own results which is accepted and available online. They were kind enough to discuss it with us, and add some of the team to the list of authors – and they’ll be blogging here next week to tell you about what they’ve done.
It still hurts to be beaten to publication, but at least they’re friendly and it’s another sign of how this remarkable object has captured people’s attention.
Sorry to hear that. Good for you Hanny. We’re all friendly and shake hands anyway, so no one has lost, everyone’s won!
I don’t understand the process. It seems as though Hanny found this object and they are taking credit for it. If so, it is blatantly unfair.
Hi Jim,
Thank you, for your concern, but no need to worry. It got nicknamed ‘Hanny’s Voorwerp’ and that name stuck, so yes, it is named after me. Also, both the astronomers from Galaxy Zoo and the people from ASTRON – who are very friendly indeed – asked me to be involved (I’m a co-author on both papers) and I have been from the beginning.
And hey, I wanted to know what it was, but I couldn’t have figured it out on my own, so… thanks to all of them for the great work!
Cheers,
Hanny.
Thanks to you Hanny for calming me. You are quite generous and thoughtful.
Thanks again Jim!
There’s more info about how we wrote those papers here by the way: http://www.hannysvoorwerp.com/?p=845
Congratulations, Hanny. Never thought I’d have the fortune to see you on the site, but here you are! Amazing discovery.