Hanny Van Arkel, a Dutch schoolteacher, has discovered a new class of cosmic object, through a project which allows the public to take part in astronomy research online.

Hanny, came across the strange gaseous blob while using the Galaxy Zoo web site to help classify galaxies in telescope images.

The object quickly became known as "Hanny's Voorwerp" - Voorwerp being the Dutch word for "object".  Go to BBC News for the entire story.

If you are even remotely into astronomy, or have children, you really should check out galaxyzoo.org.  Galaxy Zoo is an interactive web site that allows...actually encourages you to help in discovering, or classifying galaxies.

Just like Hanny Van Arkel, an amateur astronomist, you to could make an astronomical discovery...how cool would that be? 

I can't explain to you how fascinating I find this.  I think it would be so exciting to make an astronomical (or any science) discovery! 

So if you have a future astronomer in your home, get out the telescope, go to Galaxy Zoo and aim high.  Happy Discovering!