Hanny’s Vorwerp, discovered by Dutch teacher Hanny van Arkel in 2007 (“vorwerp” is Dutch for “object”), is an intergalactic oddity. Around 100,000 light years across, it is the visible part of a 300,000-light-year-long twisting rope of gas that wraps around the nearby spiral galaxy IC 2497. The galaxy is a former quasar, and the Vorwerp appears to have been lit up by the quasar’s light. In this Hubble image, the Vorwerp is coloured green, signalling the presence of ionized oxygen. Star formation is taking place on the side of the Vorwerp facing the galaxy. Both the Vorwerp and IC 2497 are 650 million light years away. More at Bad Astronomy and the HubbleSite. Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Keel (University of Alabama), and the Galaxy Zoo Team.