Where In The Universe #18
Written by Nancy Atkinson
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.
Filed under: Where In the Universe?
August 27th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Oh, it was THAT tiny moon and/or large space rock. This game isn't any fun when it's too hard.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I can never seem to guess which of these little rocky lumps of moons belong to which planet, or if they're non-captured asteroids.
It is simply amazing that we can send a robot billions and billions of kilometers away to take pictures of something so relatively small compared with the journey. I'm so glad we have these missions out there.
PS: 2 km is about 6600 feet, not 5085. 5085 feet is about 1.5 km, so… significant digits?
August 27th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Got Cassini allright.
Didn't get Janus, though. Didn't manage to go beyond "one of the small irregular moons of Saturn". "Brand new images" should be forbidden…
So this one was semi-nailed.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
SIgh. Guessed Diemos and Mars Observer. Oh well.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:51 am
I remember seeing this image from cassini but couldnt guess the name of the object… atleast half way through there!!!
August 28th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Janus, of course. A very recent shot from Cassini - I'd only downloaded it myself yesterday. Also, in Alastair Reynolds' "Pushing Ice" a gigantic alien spaceship with an inertialess drive, trying to look like an ice moon.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:48 am
TRICK QUESTIONS NOW?
How are you going to ask us to remember a photo we've never seen?
August 28th, 2008 at 6:56 am
couldn't get this one, way too difficult
August 28th, 2008 at 7:20 am
The irregular satellites aren't the easiest.
Cassini was a no-brainer, but I guessed it was Prometheus, even though I had my doubts.
August 28th, 2008 at 10:03 am
RATS! I figured it was probably a moon of Saturn, but couldn't remember which, no less its name. (Memory's the 2nd thing to go.)Down 6 for 18. Keep 'em coming!
August 28th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Guessed it alright. Not way too easy, but I only remembered it from seeing the same photo a day or two ago. 161000 miles is around 259104-259102 kms. I always like a little more precision. Whether miles were imprecise or the kms, I dunno. And 2 km is about 6561-6562 feet. Way off target.
Nice mystery images, though. Very nice. Waiting for the next week's mystery image…
August 28th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I failed miserably. Guessed Deimos.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:48 am
I thought it might be asteroid Eros, taken from that plucky spacecraft that orbited it, then landed on it. Can't recall the spacecraft's name, though.