Its time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. The goal of this challenge is to test your skills and knowledge of the cosmos. Guess where in the Universe this image is from, and give yourself extra points if you can guess which spacecraft is responsible for the image. Post your guess in the comment section (no links to hints please!) and check back tomorrow for the answer. Good luck!
UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.
As many of you said, this is an image from the Mars Pathfinder rover, Sojouner. The rock was named “Yogi” and is a meter-size rock located about 5 meters northwest of the Mars Pathfinder lander and was the second rock visited by the Sojourner Rover’s alpha proton X-ray spectrometer (APXS) instrument. To get one picture of the entire rock, it took several pictures stitched together in a mosaic, combining four “Super Pan” frames taken with the Sojouner’s camera. This composite color mosaic consists of 7 frames from the right eye, taken with different color filters that were enlarged by 500% and then co-added using Adobe Photoshop to produce, in effect, a super-resolution panchromatic frame that is sharper than an individual frame would be.
Doing this, scientists were able to address questions about the texture of this rock and what it might tell us about its mode of origin.
This is the approximate the true color of Mars. The shadow around Yogi looks a little funny, because shadows were processed separately from the rest of the rock and combined with the rest of the scene to bring out details in the shadow of Yogi that would be too dark to view at the same time as the sunlit surfaces. This resulted in the unusual color fringing at the edges of the shadow.
So, there you have it, a little blast from the past from Pathfinder. I hope you enjoyed this image, and check back next week for another WITU challenge.
This does look Martian taken from the ground, but it also looks like there is a water line near the top of the rock and water erosion at its base. Given a choice, my I will go with my first answer and say Mars.
This does look Martian taken from the ground, but it also looks like there is a water line near the top of the rock and water erosion at its base. Given a choice, I will go with my first answer and say Mars.
OK. It is Yogi rock. Photo taken by the Mars Pathfinder in 1997. Reference: Astronomy Picture of the Day. July 11 1997 and March 9, 1998, this particular photo was from APOD, 9 Mar 98.
I reckon it’s a rock on Mars, taken by Pathfinder too… I couldn’t say which rock though…
Judging from the color palette used, it a recent but not new picture, but beyond that I recognize it from following the early mission reports, this is Yogi rock from early in the Mars Pathfinder mission. Pathfinder was one of the first missions to have all the data web posted, making it a very participatory event.
This looks pretty martian, and is I agree similar to the Yogi rock that the pathfinder mini-rover explored. The rocks look basaltic as well.
Lawrence B. Crowell
One of the rocks intensively studied by the first martian lander. Off the top of my head, I don’t recall the location (on Mars) nor the direction the camera is facing, nor the time of (martian) day, nor the (earthly) date …
I would tend to agree with the other posts, Martian landscape and rock, although the water marks at the base of the rock leave me a bit puzzled…still, Martian.
I was very confident it was from Mars, but I didn’t recognize it whether it was from the either Spirit or the Opportunity missions. I thought it *maybe* would be from the Pathfinder mission or a newer Spirit photo. I will say that it’s probably a Pathfinder photo though.
I am sure this is a picture of a Martian rock by pathfinder..I think it is called as Yogi Rock!! i am not so sure though!!
Maybe you think the light down the stone is just the shdow of the stone but if you look deeper you will understand that is a sign of water like something spirit had found
I guss it can be true that we say there is water in Mars planet or in past was oportunaty for life
Yogi. Pathfinder. Cool retro picture – see, things are miving at such a pace, 1999 is now retro!
Definitely Mars…I would recognize those ancient Martian dino coprolites anywhere.
Mars. The only question is the rover who took the photo, but if my memory serves me right, this comes from the good old Pathfinder (or Sojourner). I’m trying to resist the temptation to go check the panorama it took, but I seem to remember this rock as the largest boulder in it.
Feenixx; I apologize. You are correct. As BlueAmerol said after you, I just googled it based on the previous two comments and quickly found the exact reference and simply got carried away with my second comment. Won’t happen again by me. Consider me chastised. Ms. Atkinson. My apologies.
Mr.No.Scope Says:
“OK. It is Yogi rock. Photo taken by the Mars Pathfinder in 1997. Reference: Astronomy Picture of the Day. July 11 1997 and March 9, 1998, this particular photo was from APOD, 9 Mar 98.”
Mr.No.Scope, I reckon giving it away like this spoils the fun quite a bit.
Nancy Atkinson, would it be possible/desirable to implement a “post no sources” rule? Wouldn’t it make this little game a lot more enjoyable?
It is certainly easy to find with Google using the above guesses.
Feenixx — I do have rule about posting links, (See the article above, please) so I had to delete one comment that posted a link (you know who you are!) It would make it more fun for every if the answers weren’t quite so specific as to point out every facet and detail of where the answer can be found. I’ll take care of that when I answer the challenge.
why does the top of the rock appear to be shaded from a different angle?
Now that the cat is out of the bag, as it were, here’s a link to a bit off stereogram fun I had with Yogi the rock:
http://rgbowman.blogspot.com/