It’s time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. Name where in the Universe this image was taken and give yourself extra points if you can name the telescope or spacecraft responsible for the image. Post your guesses in the comments section, and check back on later at this same post to find the answer. To make this challenge fun for everyone, please don’t include links or extensive explanations with your answer. Good luck!
UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.
This is a thin crescent of Saturn’s third largest moon, Dione, taken by the Cassini spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera on May 17, 2010, and just released on Sept. 1. Cassini was about 394,000 kilometers (245,000 miles) from Dione, and the image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel. Just like seeing our own Moon as a crescent allows us to better see the craters along the terminator, the lit terrain seen here highlights the craters on Dione, as well.
Dione. Cassini. Very nice.
That’s no moon!
It’s a space-station! However, the Empire made the dish too small in the first place (one can see it right in the center just right of the terminator), and the lasers of death couldn’t be focused properly to destroy planets. So they blew it up and rebuilt it.
Moon. As much as I want to say, a camera on board LCROSS, I shall go with Chandrayaan.
Mercury taken by Messenger.
That is Dione from Cassini (image name N00153941)
I would have said Mercury but the white dot on the right makes me say no idea.
Ah so after reading the comments I’ll still say what is that white dot on the right?
@ SPOODLE58: I’m guessing just noise.
As anyone that follows Carolyn Porco on Twitter knows, this is Dione, from Cassini. 😉
@ SIRIUS_ALPHA
Pity, was hoping for another moon in the background.
That would be nice, eh?
Unfortunately, the phase angle we’re viewing everything at would make any distant moons rather dim… not the bright cheery points we see here.
Late again —- Dione taken by Casinni
LC
Mercury and Earth…
My bad…! It’s Dione and Antenor Crater. The white dot might be the sun??
I cheated and did a quick search to find out what the heck that confusing dot is, and the team that released the image doesn’t say. So they either overlooked another moon in the image (or, more likely, their web-release person flubbed the caption), or Sirius_Alpha might be right about it being a bad pixel (possibly a cosmic ray strike on the detector).
Since I looked it up I won’t answer.
Sneaky! I could be one of many moons around a number of planets in the solar system. Without seeing the actual image on the web, I’d have to guess it’s either Mercury or a moon of Saturn. Dione is as good as any. Of course there’s always the possibility it’s the Moon – reverse psychology!
Nancy,
Where in the Universe is the answer to Where in the Universe-116 ( http://www.universetoday.com/72078/where-in-the-universe-116/ )? 🙂
Did I miss it?