Etymology

Hanny's Voorwerp

Today it means: A voorwerpje in the Leo Minor constellation near the galaxy IC 2497. The first such object discovered, an intergalactic gas cloud lit up by an extinguished quasar. The quasar jet has burned a hole in the intergalatic cloud, and some collapse, causing star formation, making this voorwerpje a candidate as a galaxy or star cluster. Full definition →

Dutch Hanny
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Dutch · derived fromvoorwerp“object”
  2. Dutch · derived fromHanny
  3. English todayHanny's Voorwerp

Dutch Hanny + Dutch voorwerp (“object”). Literally, “Hanny's Object”. From being an unusual looking object discovered by a Dutch person. This became the archetypal object for the voorwerpje object class. Named after Dutch schoolteacher and amateur astronomer Hanny van Arkel who discovered in while participating in Galaxy Zoo, the first voorwerpje (light echo nebula)

Words from the same roots

Dutchvoorwerp all →

voorwerpvoorwerpje

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.