Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here’s #102! Take a look and see if you can name where in the Universe this image is from. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image. We provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until tomorrow. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.
UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.
This is the Apollo 17 landing site as seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera. The image was part of a set of images, the first taken by LROC of the Apollo landing sites, from July 2009. See more at this link at the LRO website
Check back next week for another WITU Challenge!
Looks like the moon from LRO.
Ah, the Moon, with one of the Apollos peeking right in the middle. Photographer? LRO.
Moon, Taurus-Littrow – Apollo 17 landing site with the lunar module Challenger. Photo by LRO
It’s the Apollo 17 “Challenger” landing site at Taurus-Littrow valley, as imaged from above by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on July 11, 2009.
😎
Since the universe is so big, chances are that there are multiple spots that look exactly like this.
Damn it! Beaten by scibuff! I must learn to type faster! 😐
That’s a sand pile in a studio owned by NASA. ball bearings of various size were thrown at it to give the appearance of naturally forming craters. a small pencil eraser was places in the middle on a pin in the hope that the grazing masses of NASA parishioners would accept this as “Proof” that man has actually landed on the moon, and that the whole thing wasn’t faked. You can tell it’s fake because the shadows of various objects are pointing in different directions, clearly because they haven’t learned their lessons from the past and continue to light their little dioramas with multiple light sources.
Just kidding. that’s the moon.
I can’t believe that I am the first one with the most obvious answer…it is an extreme closeup of a teenage boy’s forehead with a severe case of acne. Or possibly the entrance to the secret AF base on the moon with little humans spying on it.
I think it is mercury, by messenger
That’s no moon, it’s a space station!
No, wait. no. it’s a moon after all.
An Apollo landing site from the LRO, which btw has my name on it 🙂
It’s the Apollo 17 landing site. The picture is taken by the LRO spacecraft.
Phobos, Viking Mission
Correction to my post above. It was the Russian Phobos 2 mission.
it seems the moon
A definite cratered body. It looks rocky, as opposed to icy and there does indeed seem to be an object in the middle. Gotta be the moon with a lander. Donno which or when.
There appears to be an object in the center, casting a shadow to the left.
There is also two objects left of center, casting shadows to the right. How is that possible?
I am not a moon landing hoaxer!!
But that is too weird….
@ RUF,
Look again… all the objects are casting shadows towards the right; the ‘object’ in the centre is actually a small crater.
Good call… I see what you mean.
I believe the picture was made thru a a telescope at Apache point in New Mexico and shows the old Russian rover at just about 11:30 from the large crater at the bottom of the image.
oops…….not