Category: Where In the Universe?

Have you seen this image before? You know you have. It’s probably right on the tip of your tongue. This is the image for this week’s “Where In The Universe?” challenge. The goal of this challenge is to test your skills and visual knowledge of our universe. Guess the name of this image, and give yourself extra points if you can guess the telescope or project that this image came from (is that a clue? It’s not from a spacecraft…). As always, don’t peek below before you make your guess. Comments on how you did are welcome.

This image is of “Hanny’s Voorwerp” from the Galaxy Zoo project, which in turn, is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which uses a 2.5-meter telescope on Apache Point, NM, to scan the sky. ‘Voorwerp’ is Dutch for ‘object’, and ‘Hanny’ refers to Hanny van Arkel, a Dutch school teacher. The voorwerp is the blue blob just below the big galaxy. Hanny found the object as she was classifying galaxies from astronomical images as part Galaxy Zoo’s “citizen science” project, where volunteers classify galaxies as spiral or eliptical. As for what the blob is, no one knows for sure. Yet.

Other spectral images show the blob as green, which is probably closer to how our eyes would actually see it if we were close enough. It’s about 700 million light years from Earth and the Voorwerp itself is about 65,000 light years across.

Hanny’s Voorwerp has been of interest to lots of folks, and an astronomer at the William Herschel telescope at La Palma took a spectrum of the Voorwerp, in an effort to help figure out what it is. The spectrum showed that the Voorwerp is at the same distance as the big galaxy. This implies that it’s really big and luminous.

The the best explanation might be that the Voorwerp got its energy from light that was once emitted by a bright quasar. The big galaxy, called IC 2497 is thought to have once hosted the quasar that lit up Hanny’s Voorwerp.

From the Galaxy Zoo Blog: “What is the Voorwerp? That’s not too clear yet. We have to properly analyse the spectrum to understand what exactly is going on. It’s likely forming stars at a huge rate, ionising lots of gas and making it shine. We’re also trying to get a deeper image to see if there’s evidence of an interaction between the big galaxy and the Voorwerp.”

If you’re not familiar with Galaxy Zoo, check it out. It’s a lot of fun. If you’re good at this challenge, you’d be a great help over at Galaxy Zoo. And who knows? Maybe you could find the next unusual object!

Here’s this week’s image for the “Where In The Universe” challenge. Take a look at the image above and guess what this image might be. Extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image as well. No peeking below before you make your guess. Ready? You may begin….

You probably just knew I had the Hubble Space Telescope on the brain this week. With its data controller failure, I’ve been browsing Hubble images all week, sighing and hoping (thinking happy thoughts, as I said in an earlier post!) I’ve also spent the past few days cleaning out a closet, so this image fits my current state of mind on all fronts. Its a Hubble image of cosmic dust bunnies. In the image are blobs of cosmic dust lie hidden in the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1316.

I realize its hard to know the names of all the galaxies out there, so you are a winner if you said “galaxy” and “Hubble.”

The image shows dust lanes and star clusters in this giant galaxy. Astronomers say these characteristics give a clue as to how this galaxy was formed.

Astronomers conclude that these dusty star clusters give clear evidence of a major collision of two spiral, gas-rich galaxies. The galaxies would have merged together a few billion years ago to shape NGC 1316 as it appears today.

NGC 1316 is about 75 million light-years away on the outskirts of a nearby cluster of galaxies in the southern constellation of Fornax. It is one of the brightest ellipticals in the Fornax galaxy cluster and is also one of the strongest and largest radio sources in the sky.

See more info about this image at the HubbleSite.

It’s time once again for this week’s Where In The Universe challenge. Take a look at the image above and try to determine where in the universe this image was taken. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for taking this image. As always, no peeking below before you make your guess. And comments are welcome if you want to share how well you did!

Make your guess, and then proceed.

This prominent circular feature, known as the Richat Structure, is found on our home planet Earth, in the Sahara Desert. Lots of astronauts have noted it and taken pictures of it because it forms a conspicuous 50-kilometer-wide (30-mile-wide) bullet’s-eye on the otherwise rather featureless expanse of the desert. Initially it was thought to be an impact crater, but it is now known to be an eroded circular anticline (structural dome) of layered sedimentary rocks.

This image was generated from a Landsat satellite image draped over an elevation model produced by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), so if you said either a satellite or an astronaut took this image, you can consider yourself correct. The view uses a 6-times vertical exaggeration to greatly enhance topographic expression. To give a scale for this image, the height of the mesa ridge in the back center of the view is about 285 meters (about 935 feet) tall. This is a color enhanced image, using both visible and infrared bands, which helps to differentiate bedrock (browns), sand (yellow, some white), minor vegetation in drainage channels (green), and salty sediments (bluish whites). Some shading of the elevation model was included to further highlight the topographic features.

This is quite a striking image from the old home planet.

See a hi-resolution image here.

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

Here’s this week’s image for the “Where In The Universe” challenge. Take a look at the image above and guess where in our universe this image was taken. Extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image as well. No peeking below before you make your guess. Ready? You may begin….

This is an image of Earth’s Moon, taken by the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft, currently in orbit of the Moon. Interestingly, this image shows the Apollo 17 landing site at the Taurus-Littrow Valley, located on the southeastern rim of Mare Serenitatis. A flat valley is surrounded by mountains which were made of ejecta rocks from the when this “sea” was created by an asteroid impact. Since Kaguya is in a polar orbit of the moon, this image looks down from the south to the north. The spacecraft’s Terrain Camera was used to create this 3-D-like image.

See more images from Kaguya here. There’s quite a bit of information included with each image. The resolution isn’t high enough to see any features from the Apollo spacecraft, however the red circle in the Terrain Camera image below encircles the potential “halo” by Apollo 17 lunar module “Challenger” engine exhaust plume.

How did you do?

It’s Wednesday, so that means its time for another “Where In The Universe” (WITU) challenge to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. This one might be relatively easy, but I’m feeling generous today. Guess what this image is, and give yourself extra points if you can guess which spacecraft is responsible for the image. As always, don’t peek below before you make your guess. Comments on how you did are welcome.

Ready? Go!

This is the Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392), so named because it resembles a person’s head surrounded by a parka hood. But its also known as the Clownface Nebula. In 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope produced this image. NGC 2392 lies about 3000 light-years away and is visible with a small telescope, found in the constellation of Gemini.

The gas clouds in this nebula are unusual and complex, and aren’t fully understood. Its a planetary nebula, and the gas seen above composed the outer layers of a Sun-like star only 10,000 years ago. The inner filaments visible above are being ejected by strong wind of particles from the central star. The outer disk contains unusual light-year long orange filaments.

How’d you do?

Here’s another “Where In The Universe” challenge, and in keeping with the Mission:Impossible theme from the previous post, your mission, should you choose to accept, is to identify where in the universe this image was taken. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image. Does everyone have their watches synchronized and secret decoder image detectors ready? It’s fairly certain this website will not self destruct in five seconds, so take your time looking at the image. As always, no peeking below before you make your guess.

This is an image of a dune field on Mars in Wirtz Crater, and yes, the white material is actually frost on the dunes. It was taken by the HiRISE Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. I came across this image while searching for more evidence of frost on Mars, other than what the Phoenix and Viking Landers had imaged. Just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, I checked in with Nathan Bridges from JPL and the HiRISE Team about this image. He explains, “The white material is frost, composed of water and/or carbon dioxide. When this image was taken, it was winter in this part of Mars and it gets cold enough for water to condense out of the atmosphere and even for the atmosphere itself to freeze (the atmosphere is made of CO2) The color is approximately what you would see on Mars, but is enhanced to bring out detail.”

This image was taken on January 7, 2007 at about 3:50 in the afternoon, Mars local time, as HiRISE was 254 km (158.7 miles) above Mars’ surface. Wirtz Crater is located at -48 degrees latitude and 334.6 degrees longitude east.

For more information about this image, or to get higher resolution versions of the entire image swath, check out HiRISE’s website.

Here’s this week’s “Where In The Universe?” mystery image. The goal of this challenge is to test your skills and visual knowledge of our universe. Guess where this image is from, and give yourself extra points if you can guess which spacecraft is responsible for the image. As always, don’t peek below before you make your guess. Comments on how you did are welcome.

Ready? Proceed…

This is a brand new image from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting the Saturn system, which took this image of the moon Janus. Janus is 179 kilometers, or 111 miles across, and this view shows a perspective 72 degrees north of the moon’s equator. The image was taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on July 14, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 259,000 kilometers (161,000 miles) from Janus. image scale is 2 kilometers (5,085 feet) per pixel.

How’d you do?

For more info about the image, click here.

It’s Wednesday, so it’s time for another “Where In The Universe” Challenge. Take a look at the image above and try to determine where in the universe this image was taken. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for taking this image. As always, no peeking below for the before you make your guess. Our readers have been having a blast with this challenge, and we hope this one will evoke more eruptions of cheers and enjoyment.

This is a small volcano island here on Earth, found in the Aleutian Islands. But tiny Kasatochi Volcano created a big mess in recently by spewing ash and sulfur dioxide over the surrounding area. The volcano erupted with little warning on August 7, 2008. No one was hurt, but two biologists were evacuated from the island just hours before the eruption. According to the Associated Press, the ash forced Alaska Airlines to cancel 44 flights between Alaska, Canada, and the continental United States. Until the eruption, the steep-sided volcano harbored a small lake inside its 314-meter (1000-foot) summit, and vegetation (red in this image) covered the slopes. Cliffs along the shoreline may be the result of erosion from heavy surf, visible as a white fringe around the island. Kasatochi had not erupted in at least 200 years.

This image, composed of near-infrared, red, and green wavelengths of light, was acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite in 2003.

Here’s a link to some images showing Kasatochi during the eruption.

NASA image and caption by Robert Simmon, based on data from the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team and found on the NASA Earth Observatory website.

It’s time once again for this week’s Where In The Universe challenge. Take a look at the image above and try to determine where in the universe this image was taken. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for taking this image. As always, no peeking below for the before you make your guess.


Here’s one more image of this object.

Ready for the answer?

These are images of Neptune’s moon Proteus. Needless to say, Proteus is not one of the better-known moons of our solar system. Did you recognize it? Proteus was discovered in 1989 by the only spacecraft that has flown by Neptune, Voyager 2. Though Proteus (400 km diameter) is larger than Neptune’s better known moon, Nereid (340 km, which was discovered in 1949 by Gerard Kuiper) Proteus was not discovered earlier because it is very dark and so close to Neptune that it is difficult to see in the glare of the much brighter planet.

Proteus has an irregular almost box-like shape, and scientists believe it is probably about as big as an irregular body can be before its gravity pulls it into a more spherical configuration.

There’s not a lot of action on Proteus. The heavily cratered surface shows no signs of geologic activity.

Other than those facts, there’s not much to say about Proteus. As Bill Arnett says on his Nine Planets website, “We know next to nothing about Proteus.” We’ve not sent a spacecraft to go visit and study Neptune and its moons specifically, and although NASA was considering sending a probe to Neptune a few years ago, it appears such a mission has been put on the back burner.

How’d you do in this week’s challenge?

Betcha thought I forgot about this week’s “Where In the Universe” challenge. Sorry its late, but summer is the time for vacations and partaking in hobbies like rock hunting and late night stargazing. Here’s an image that might provide the opportunity for both. That’s just a little hint for this week’s challenge. Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to name the location in the universe this image was taken, or maybe in this instance, what this is an image of. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image (that might be the easy part this week). No peeking below until you make your guess. And to be honest, I should say that this image is part of a larger image, which can be seen below.

In this unusual image, the Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the celestial equivalent of a geode — a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet radiation from a hot young star. The object, called N44F, is being inflated by a torrent of fast-moving particles –a stellar wind –from an exceptionally hot star once buried inside a cold dense cloud. N44F is located about 160,000 light-years in our neighboring dwarf galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, in the direction of the southern constellation Dorado.

Real geodes are baseball-sized, hollow rocks that start out as bubbles in volcanic or sedimentary rock. Only when these geodes are split in half by a geologist, do we get a chance to appreciate the inside of the rock cavity that is lined with crystals. In the case of Hubble’s 35 light-year diameter “celestial geode” the transparency of its bubble-like cavity of interstellar gas and dust reveals the treasures of its interior.

Compared with our Sun, the central star in N44F is ejecting more than a 100 million times more mass per second. The hurricane of particles moves much faster at about 4 million miles per hour (7 million kilometers per hour), as opposed to about 0.9 million miles per hour (1.5 million kilometers per hour) for our Sun. Because the bright central star does not exist in empty space but is surrounded by an envelope of gas, the stellar wind collides with this gas, pushing it out, like a snowplow. This forms a bubble, whose striking structure is clearly visible in the crisp Hubble image.

How’d everyone do?

Find the original image here.