Category: Where In the Universe?

Oh, heavens! I’ve been so busy at Kennedy Space Center with pre-launch activities this week for the STS-130 that I totally forgot about this week’s Where In The Universe Challenge! Thanks to UT reader William928 for reminding me. Since this week is completely different for me, I decided to make the WITU challenge a little different. You can probably guess what planet this is. But the real challenge is to name to moon. Give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for this picture. Post your guesses in the comments section, and check back later at this same post to find the answer (if I don’t forget to post the answer…). To make this challenge fun for everyone, please don’t include links or extensive explanations with your answer. Good luck!

And yes, I’m really having an amazing experience covering the preps for shuttle launch!

UPDATE: Answer has been posted below.

The little moon is Io, backdropped by huge Jupiter. The image was taken by the Cassini spacecraft in 2001 while it was on its way to Saturn. Learn more about the picture here.

Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here’s #89! 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 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 is now posted below.

This is Earth, and specifically the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, where one of the world’s driest regions meets up with the foothills of the Andes Mountains. The colors come from salt pans and gorges choked with mineral-streaked sediments, giving way to white-capped volcanoes. This image was captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite on October 28, 2001.

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

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It’s time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. Test your visual knowledge of the cosmos by naming where in the Universe this image was taken and give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for this picture. 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.

This is a lake on Titan. It iis part of a larger image taken by the Cassini radar instrument during a flyby of Saturn’s moon Titan on Sept. 23, 2006. It shows clear shorelines that look eerily like lakes here on Earth. But with Titan’s colder temperatures and hydrocarbon-rich atmosphere, however, the lakes likely contain a combination of methane and ethane, not water. No skinny dipping allowed!

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

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 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: Answer is now posted below.

This is a composite image from Chandra, Hubble, VLA and MERLIN that shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy, which in 2007, was the first time such an interaction has been found. This system, known as 3C321, is located in the constellation Serpens, and is about 1.4 billion light years from Earth. X-ray data from Chandra shows up in purple; optical and ultraviolet (UV) data from Hubble are seen as red and orange, and radio emission from the Very Large Array (VLA) and MERLIN (Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network at Jodrell Bank) in blue show how the jet from the main galaxy on the lower left is striking its companion galaxy to the upper right. The jet impacts the companion galaxy at its edge and is then disrupted and deflected, much like how a stream of water from a hose will splay out after hitting a wall at an angle. Find out more about the image at the Chandra website.

Check back next week for another

Is this image strange, or what?! But the location of this image is somewhere out in the Universe. Your challenge is to figure out where. You know the drill: Take a look and name the location. 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 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: Answer has now been posted below.

Yes, this really is Mars, via the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. I liked all the other interesting answers, especially the boar’s pelt. This is a brand new image from HiRISE, and its nice to see the camera back in action once again (and in fine form, too!) after its recent hiatus due to the problematic safing events.

This image shows a region of sand dunes in the high northern latitudes on Mars. The features that look like bristles, and actually streaks on the crests of the dunes. In the winter, a layer of carbon dioxide ice covers the dunes, and in the spring as the sun warms the ice it evaporates. This is a very active process, and sand dislodged from the crests of the dunes cascades down, forming dark streaks.

If you look closely at the middle-left side of the image, you’ll see what looks like a “puff” (or go look at this larger image on the HiRISE page) This is actually another avalanche that HiRISE has captured, in action! The falling material has kicked up a small cloud of dust. The color of the ice surrounding adjacent streaks of material suggests that dust has settled on the ice at the bottom after similar events.

Another great shot, HiRISE! Weird, but great!

Check back next week for another WITU Challenge.

Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here’s #85! 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 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: Answer has been posted below!

Think it is cold where you are? Well, you might now want to visit this location, on the north pole of the Moon. This image, taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, shows a junction between the rims of three craters on the floor of Peary crater near the lunar north pole. Peary is a key exploration site for future astronauts due its proximity to potential resources. See the entire zoomable HUGE image here.

It’s time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. Test your visual knowledge of the cosmos by naming where in the Universe this image was taken and give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for this picture. 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 the Atafu Atoll in the Southern Pacific Ocean. The image was taken by an ISS crew member from Expedition 18 crewmember. on the International Space Station. The ring-like shape of the atoll is the result of coral reefs building up around a former volcanic island. Over geologic time, the central volcano has subsided beneath the water surface, leaving the fringing reefs and a central lagoon that contains submerged coral reefs. Erosion and soil development on the surfaces of the exposed fringing reefs has lead to formation of tan to light brown beach deposits (southern and western sides of the atoll) and green vegetation cover (northern and eastern sides of the atoll).

Atafu Atoll is about eight kilometers wide. The primary settlement on Atafu is a village located at the northwestern corner of the atoll — indicated by an area of light gray dots in this photograph. The approximate elevation of Atafu Atoll is only two meters above the tidal high water level. Vulnerability to tropical cyclones and potential sea level rise makes the long-term habitability of the atoll uncertain.

It’s time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. Test your visual knowledge of the cosmos by naming where in the Universe this image was taken and give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for this picture. Post your guesses in the comments section, and check back 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 nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars around a yellow nucleus is the very unusual galaxy known as Hoag’s Object. The Hubble Space Telescope captured this face-on view of the galaxy’s ring of stars, revealing more detail than any other existing photo of this object. The image may help astronomers unravel clues on how such strange objects form.

The entire galaxy is about 120,000 light-years wide, which is slightly larger than our Milky Way Galaxy.

Great job, everyone, and check back next week for anther WITU challenge!

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 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 is now posted below.

This is Centaurus A as seen in radio wavelengths (408 MHz, to be exact.) (Close, DrFlimmer, but not quite…) This image comes from the Chromoscope, the new online tool that allows you to look at the Universe in whatever wavelength you desire. Stuart Lowe, the lead developer of Chromoscope, showed me this particular image at the dotAstronomy conference last week (and thanks to Scibuff for not giving away the answer!)

The image comes from the all-sky continuum survey done at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.

Check back next week for another WITU Challenge!