Starship Asterisk*

[float=right][img3="The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini [1647–1652]"]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Teresabernini.JPG[/img3][/float][quote="Ann"]

Wow! It sure looks like (an admittedly very strange) polar ring galaxy to me, but you have to wonder why the "ring" appears to "blow away" like smoke above the galaxy, and why there is such a very, very strange orange "appendix" hanging down from the tummy of it.

Yes indeed, perhaps it has been shot - or pierced![/quote][quote=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_of_Saint_Theresa"]

[color=#BF6030][i][size=115]"I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying."[/size][/i][/color][/quote]

Wow!

It sure looks like (an admittedly very strange) polar ring galaxy to me, but you have to wonder why the "ring" appears to "blow away" like smoke above the galaxy, and why there is such a very, very strange orange "appendix" hanging down from the tummy of it.

Yes indeed, perhaps it has been shot - or pierced!

Ann

[img]http://s3.amazonaws.com/zoo2_extra/334182.jpg[/img]

The object goes by the incredibly simple name of [url=http://cas.sdss.org/stripe82/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=8647474691942449448]SDSS J233604.13+000440.6[/url] (not!), but I think 'arrow pierced galaxy' is better.

It's featured in the [url=http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?board=5.0]Galaxy Zoo Object of the Day[/url], stardate [url=http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=278416.0]22nd October, 2010[/url], by Lightbulb500. As far as I know, it has not yet been APODed.