Categories: Where In the Universe?

Where In The Universe #44

This week’s WITU Challenge image was sent in by a faithful reader of Universe Today who frequents the comment section as NeoGuru. I’ll not give any hints as to where NeoGuru got the image, or what it is, or whether this image can be found anywhere else on the web (for those of you that like to search online for the image and link the answer!). You’ll have to wait until tomorrow (Thursday) for the answer to be revealed for this week’s Challenge.

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below — don’t peek before you make your guess!

To see a sight like this, you don’t have to look up, but look within…within the Earth, that is. These are glowworms found in the Waitomo Caves in New Zealand. The caves and these creatures look amazing! These worms light up to attract insects for food. They glow from bioluminescence which is a chemical reaction between a chemical they produce called luciferin, and air. The chemical reaction gives off light. Way cool!

Thanks to UT reader NeoGuru for sharing the picture and info for this week’s WITU Challenge. Check back next week to try your hand at a new Challenge.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/