voorwerp

English

Hanny's Voorwerp is the green splotch in this false-color image.

Etymology

Dutch voorwerp (“object”), after Hanny's Voorwerp, discovered in 2007 by Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɔːɹˌwɛɹp/

Noun

voorwerp (plural voorwerps)

1. (astronomy) An ionization or light echo, especially the quasar ionization echo known as Hanny's Voorwerp.
   • 2014 December 9, Chad Orzel, Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist, Basic Books, →ISBN:

     The voorwerp turns out to be a cloud of gas tens of thousands of light-years across, which has somehow been heated to high enough temperatures to emit visible light. The exact mechanism of the heating is still under debate, but probably […]

   • 2018 February 15, Matt Brown, Everything You Know About Space is Wrong, Batsford, →ISBN:

     Other voorwerps have since been spotted, but Hanny holds the distinction of finding the first, with nothing more exotic than a public website and the power of the human brain.

   • 2020 April 7, Michael Nielsen, Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, pages 132, 140:

     But regardless of which explanation is correct, or even if some other explanation is needed, the voorwerp is fascinating. Suppose, for instance, that it really is a quasar mirror. As we've seen, this means that the voorwerp is a huge collection of mirrors, echoing the light of the quasar at many different times over the quasar's lifetime. That means light from the voorwerp is a bit like a biography of the quasar,  […]
     There's even a voorwerp project, and the Zooites have successfully hunted down several more voorwerps. In all, Galaxy Zoo has been used to write 22 scientific papers, on a wide variety of topics, and many more papers are on the way.

Alternative forms

• Voorwerp

Dutch

Etymology

From voor (“before”) +‎ werpen (“to throw”), a calque of Latin obiectum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvoːrˌʋɛrp/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

voorwerp n (plural voorwerpen, diminutive voorwerpje n)

1. a physical object
2. (grammar) the object (of a sentence)

Derived terms

• kunstvoorwerp
• lijdend voorwerp
• meewerkend voorwerp