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Jan
05
2012

Algemeen Dagblad Nieuwsquiz 2011

This is a message for everyone taking part in the Newsquiz of the national (Dutch) newspaper called Algemeen Dagblad. The 52 questions of this quiz, about news from 2011, can be found in the AD from Saturday 31st of December, on pages 4-13. And I know this because I’ve had several e-mails from contestants asking me the answer to question 30 on page 8. This is because the question reads:
 

This year it became clear that Hanny’s Voorwerp is a…

A)     Fairytale

B)      Birthplace for new stars

C)      New planet

 

The kind souls I’ve already e-mailed the answer to all replied back saying thanks, so before I’m giving you the answer here though I’d like to ask you: do let me know if you’ve seen this post and if it was helpful. You can e-mail me at: hannyarkelvan(at)gmail.com or leave a comment below (dat mag ook in het Nederlands).
 

And one more thing: if anyone has a copy left of this newspaper, or can take a picture of the page this question is on, I’d be very grateful too. | Kan iemand mij helpen aan deze krant? Nadat u gewonnen heeft? Of een foto maken van de pagina waar deze vraag staat? Dat kan ook online, maar alleen als abonnee – alvast bedankt very much!
 

So, the answer was published in the Algemeen Dagblad of Thursday the 13th of January. I gave interviews from Seattle, where we presented our results and I saw this when I got on my flight back and nearly everyone on the airplane was looking at my face. There’s a birthspot with new stars in the ‘eye’ of Hanny’s Voorwerp, so the answer is B. And here’s picture proof.
 

By Hanny | Posted in Media | Comments (0)
Dec
31
2011

Happy New Year!

Remember when we thought machines might not be able to handle the millennium change? Yeah, that was 12 years ago. TWELVE. I’ll just say it one more time, this year. How Time Flies! And my time deficit is pretty much my only big problem in life, with the only consolation that at least I enjoy the time I have as much as I can. Anyway, we’re at the end of another year again. Of 2011. So here’s my last message of the year.
 

For the record, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. My life plans and ideas don’t run on your calendar, thanks for asking. It’s also still the same schoolyear when we go back to work next week and a bit. I do still get foolishly sentimental when Radio 2 presents their final #Top2000 show until the very last seconds to midnight though. But besides that, I actually think every day is a great new start. Which doesn’t mean I don’t have a few wishes, or exciting plans for that matter…
 

And I wish for everybody to have a very happy and meaningful year. With lots of scientific truths about the doomsday nonsense. In health and peace and especially with loads of fun. I’m looking forward to it!
 

This is how much fun we had over Christmas, my cousins (Randy, 17 and Valesca, 3) and I.

Brother and sister.

Randy’s now definitely taller than I.

Valesca is sleeping, she said, which is why you can’t see her smile…

We has cuddles.

And we had too much food and presents too.

By Hanny | Posted in Private | Comments (1)
Dec
30
2011

A life changing experience?

A few months ago, Karen Masters asked on the Galaxy Zoo forum whether Galaxy Zoo has inspired us to do anything new. As she said, there are a few great stories of volunteers actually going back to school, taking science courses, one of whom is my friend Thomas. But she was also after maybe not so drastic changes: “I honestly mean anything. Have you read books, or watched TV shows you wouldn’t have otherwise known about. Maybe gone to a museum, or joined your local amateur astronomy club. Just curious about the wider effect of Galaxy Zoo on the lives of the volunteers.”
 

I loved this topic right away, as I was just as curious about how – as I once called it – this oil spill of knowledge and fun had affected the lives of fellow zooites. Another friend, Jules, wrote: “I didn’t do science at school (girl’s weren’t encouraged) and regretted it. Got a non-science degree and a non-science related career and I settled for astronomy as a hobby and thought that was that. Then came Galaxy Zoo (and to be fair Stardust@Home too) and I found that there was a way in to science after all these years. Several Open Uni courses later I am now studying for my second science qualification.”
 

But the success of the now called Zooniverse didn’t just change our lives. One of the professionals, an astronomer who joined the team via the forum (to cut that story very short) and is now doing the lead on our Hubble investigation of the Voorwerp, Bill Keel, said: “You mean in some way other than blogging, doing podcasts, working on the comic book, furnishing grist for my most successful Hubble proposal in about 5 years, an additional research grant, starting points for three additional student projects so far, four observing trips, months when I had at least an hour a day of joy looking at what new odd galaxies people have posted, and heading to Greenwich to meet a large crowd consisting of 0.03% of Zooites and having the new experience of people actually lined up to buy me a drink? Other than those, I have trouble thinking of ways…”
 

Kevin Schawinski, Zookeeper from the start, added that he had the occasional extra espresso, but joking aside, I’m pretty sure it all had a big impact on his and Chris Lintott’s life as well, as initiator of the project. In fact, I remember Chris saying things like ‘I never thought I’d be doing this, but thanks to the Voorwerp…’ a couple of times. And the Voorwerp obviously did change my life as well. As I said in the thread on the forum, I’ve written the page in the comic book about ‘how finding the Voorwerp changed my life’, but if you’re restricted to so many words, you only mention the highlights and there’s lots of nice little things I wouldn’t have known about if it wasn’t for the Zoo. We agreed my list would probably be very long though.
 

But I did also wanted to answer this myself, as it would be nice to look back and realise what cool things I got to experience if I hadn’t found out about Galaxy Zoo. So I’ll have a think and this will probably be continued soon.

By Hanny | Posted in Zooniverse | Comments (3)
Dec
29
2011

Our Hubble picture across the internet

As the end of 2011 gets nearer, I’ve stumbled across quite a few websites with ‘my space frog’ on them. This mostly happens on twitter (the stumbling across part). However, I also wanted to ‘retweet’ a few of them here, for the record sorta.
 

First, although I’m already a few days late mentioning this, there’s a new Zooniverse advent calendar this year and when opening the second door, you can play (pong) around with Hanny’s Voorwerp. Nice one, ‘keepers.
 

Also, at the end of a year we tend to look back, and at the start of this one – January ‘11 – we presented the Hubble picture of the Voorwerp. It amused me to find out we’re also behind door number ten of this Hubble Space Telescope advent calendar, we’re one of 50 images you can vote for on space.com (we’re number 31), and the Bad Astronomer put us in his top 24 deep space pictures of this year!
 

Then there was also a tweet from Govert Schilling saying his piece about our Hubble pic made it in the ScienceNOW top 10. As one of hundreds it ended 6th!
 

Thanks for all the posts, the noticing and sharing it everyone!

By Hanny | Posted in Media | Comments (0)
Dec
23
2011

Modeling differently

Following the former post about nice people contacting me, I thought the letter from the friendly stranger called Jasper deserved to have its own spot, in the art category even. Evidently, I’ve been a model without having to sit still for a long time! Below you see a picture I took of the two pictures Jasper sent me, with a handwritten letter explaining the why and how he drew my face from the cover of the Intermediar magazine. Wow! Thanks again Jasper, it looks really neat.
 


Drawing with kind permission of Jasper.
 

By Hanny | Posted in Art | Comments (0)