Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Where In The Universe #43

It’s Wednesday, so that means its time for another “Where In The Universe” challenge to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. See if you can name where in the Universe this image is from, and give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image. Make your guess and post a comment. Check back sometime on Thursday to find the answer and see how you did (and yes, I’ll try to remember to post the answer in a timely fashion this week!)

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.

Pretty much everyone said this was Europa, and guess what, you’re right! This highly detailed image of Jupiter’s moon Europa was taken by the Galileo spacecraft. It’s a processed image to show the differences in materials that cover the ice. The red linear features are cracks and ridges that stretch for thousands of kilometres across the moon’s surface, resulting from tides raised by the pull of Jupiter. The mottled red terrain shows areas that have been disrupted and where ice blocks have moved around. The red material is thought to be a non-ice contaminant, such as salts brought up from the ocean thought to lie beneath Europa’s icy shell. Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Great job everyone, and check back again next week for another WITU Challenge!

40 Replies to “Where In The Universe #43”

  9. Definitely Europa, in false or at least exaggerated color.

    And very probably Galileo, I don’t think the Voyagers caught so much detail.

  15. Hapio: Don’t worry, at the rate we’re going we’ll never attempt a landing there… On Europa as taken by the Galileo spacecraft.

  16. Gotta go with false colour of Europa there – colour coded to bring out differences in chemical composition of the icy surface.

  24. Europa. But much more importantly, it shows the coloured lines that seem to point to the potential for a lichen type of growth that might, might, be life on another body in the solar system.

  25. Cracks on the surface of Europa moon of jupiter Black iquid hydrocarbons coming out in the cracks.

  27. Europa. All too easy. Although I can’t give myself the extra points, this should be changed to ‘Where in our Solar System’.

  28. How many extra points do we get? This is the easiest one thus far. The extra point value must be low.

  30. Any space geek who does not immediately recognize this as Europa should have their pocket protectors revoked immediately.

    And hooray that the major space powers are finally going to get serious about exploring the one other world in this solar system that may have actual living life on it! Even if it will take another 2 decades to happen.

  34. Yup, I like Dave Hall’s answer! As a former bio teacher, that’s the first thing I thought of too– retinal patterns. As for the spaceship, I suggest it was actually a submarine, the Proteus, from the movie “Fantastic Voyage”!

  38. Europa is really easy to pick, btw is it a false colour image, I’m puzzled as to why some features the lines appear red?

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