The universe is filled with galaxies of all shapes and sizes. Galaxies are not unlike rings in a tree trunk - they allow us to see when the tree formed, how the tree grew, and how it might spend the rest of its life. Galaxies do the same for seeing how the universe evolved. But the difference between trees and the universe is that there hundreds of tree rings, but billions and billions of galaxies.

Astronomers are unable to look at and catalogue all these galaxies by themselves, so they called on the public to join in and help out with the process. In July 2007, an online project known as Galaxy Zoo was launched, where members of the public can sign in and help classify a huge range of galaxies by answering a few simple questions.

Hanny van Arkel is a schoolteacher from the Netherlands. She plays guitar and at the moment she teaches music in a primary school in Heerlen, where she also works on science boxes (boxes of science experiments for kids). Hanny joined Galaxy Zoo soon after it launched and before long she came across an image of a galaxy that also had an unusual 'blob' placed next to the galaxy. The object - or 'voorwerp' as it's known in Dutch - quickly sparked interest among the other members and some scientists. The mysterious object gained a lot of media coverage as a community of confused scientists pointed their telescopes to the sky. At the moment, Hanny's Voorwerp is believed to be an ancient "light echo".

Hanny will come to Dublin and Donegal to tell her story about the object, what it is, and how citizen science plays an important part in developing our understanding of the universe. "I explain how I got involved and what my life as a ‘famous amateur astronomer’ looks like and I also talk about the social side of ‘citizen astronomy’."