Category: Where In the Universe?

Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here’s #138! 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, telescope or instrument involved with this 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. And Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.

UPDATE: Answer now posted below!

This is the launch of space shuttle Discovery on an earlier launch – STS-70, back in 1995. It is a side view (much like the view that our photographer Alan Walters had from Astronaut Road for STS-133 last week — see our gallery of launch images), so that’s why only one SRB plume is visible. Of course STS-133 launched last week on Discovery’s final mission to space, a very historic page in space history.

Here’s this week’s image for the Where In The Universe Challenge, to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. You know what to do: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the universe this image is from; give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft/telescope responsible for the image. We’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until later. 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 is now posted below.

While the explosion of Praxis might have looked like this if Nicholas Meyer would have filmed Star Trek VI in X-Ray, this is in fact an image of the core of M87, a galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. This image was taken in 2004 with the Chandra’s X-ray telescope, and showed what was believed to be three rings associated with the galaxy’s core and jet. See more about this image on the Chandra website.

Followup observations reveals actually just two circular rings with radii of 45 thousand and 55 thousand light years, respectively. These features are likely sound waves produced by earlier explosions about 10 million and 14 million years ago.

Check back next week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos.

Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here’s #136! 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. As usual, we’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until later. 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.

And you can also find the answer to last week’s image (a double-ringed crater somewhere in the Universe…) back on the original post.

UPDATE: Answer has now been posted below.

While this image looks like shag carpet, it actually is Mars! Scientists have been noticing changes in Martian sand dunes, and this is one of the images that they’ve been looking at to determine just how much change is going on from season to season on Mars. You can take a closer look and also look at the surrounding region by looking at the various resolutions available of this image on the HiRISE website.

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 is now posted below:

As many of you surmised, this is a MESSENGER image of the double-ring basin Rachmaninoff on Mercury. This and other MESSENGER images are showing evidence that the interior smooth plains seen on the planet are products of relatively young volcanism, the youngest documented on Mercury to date. Find out more on this image at the MESSENGER website.

Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? 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, telescope or instrument responsible for the image. We provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until later. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. And Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.

UPDATE: The answer is now posted below:

Sharp eyes, everyone. This Hubble image from 2000 was taken when the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) was brand-spanking new. It shows the unique galaxy pair called NGC 3314. Through an extraordinary chance alignment, a face-on spiral galaxy lies precisely in front of another larger spiral. This line-up provides us with the rare chance to visualize dark material within the front galaxy, seen only because it is silhouetted against the object behind it.

See more about the image on HubbleSite.

Also, I finally answered last week’s WITU Challenge, #133. And this one has a personal connection, too. Find the answer back on the original post.

Here’s this week’s image for the Where In The Universe Challenge, to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. You know what to do: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the universe this image is from; give yourself extra points if you can name the instrument responsible for the image. We’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until later this week. 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.

I’m really disappointed no one thought this was a picture of the Moon, as seen by the Apollo astronauts. That’s not what it is, but that was my thought when I first saw the image. This actually is an image I took of a lava field on the Big Island of Hawaii when I visited there recently. I was flying in a helicopter looking for lava flows and (see my article about flying over Kilauea Volcano) and this lava field does look as barren as the Moon, and I thought the window markings on the helicopter looked reminiscent of the Apollo Moon Lander windows.

Anyway, the great thing about the Big Island is that it is like a microcosm of the planet, with 10 of the world’s 14 or 15 identified climate zones contained in a 2 hour helicopter tour. Just a short flight from this lava field is a lush rainforest — and in the opposite direction is a sandy ocean beach. The affect of water on the rough lava is amazing.

Here’s this week’s Where In The Universe Challenge. 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, telescope or instrument responsible for the image. We provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until later. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. And 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 a view of the interior of a crater on the northern hemisphere of Mars — just below the polar ice cap — which has ice and polygon-shaped cracks, commonly found where subsurface water freezes and thaws during the variations in Mars’ seasons. The image was taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2008. Find out more about his image at the HiRISE website. And check back later this week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos!

Ready for the final Where In The Universe Challenge of 2010? 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, telescope or instrument responsible for the image. We provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until later. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. And 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 2003 image from the Hubble Advanced Camera for Survey provided a unique view of the dust disk around a young, 5-million-year-old star. The star, called HD 141569A, lies 320 light-years away in the constellation Libra and appears to be a member of a triple-star system. This false color, coronagraphic view portrays the system if astronomers could view it from above. See more about this image at the HubbleSite.

Happpy New Year!

Here’s this week’s Where In The Universe Challenge. 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, telescope or instrument 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. And please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.

UPDATE: Answer now posted below!

This is the Moon, specifically the big rock in the middle is a close-up of a 320 meter block of ejecta in Tycho crater covered by a veneer of impact melt. The image was taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera earlier in 2010.

Tycho crater is one of the most visible features on the near side of the Moon, and its ray system extends far and wide. So much so that the Apollo 17 astronauts sampled its ejecta, over ,2000 km away from the crater! That is amazing!

See more images of Tycho and learn more at the LROC website.

Here’s this week’s image for the Where In The Universe Challenge, to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. You know what to do: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the universe this image is from; give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft/telescope responsible for the image. We’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until later. 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: Answer now posted below.

This is part of the Orion Nebula showing a colony of hot, young stars, and was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The hottest stars in the region, called the Trapezium cluster, are bright spots at center right. Radiation and winds from those stars has sculpted and blown away surrounding dust. The densest parts of the cloud appear dark at center left.

This image is a combination of data from Spitzer and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). The Spitzer data was taken after Spitzer’s liquid coolant ran dry in May 2009, marking the beginning of its “warm” mission. Light from Spitzer’s remaining infrared channels has been color-coded: 3.6-micron light is green and 4.5-micron light is red. 2MASS 2.5 micron light is blue.

See more about this image on the Spitzer website.