Comments on: This Week's Where In The Universe Challenge

By: pink floyd

pink floyd — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:53:51 +0000

Oh my, something in my eye, eye. Something in the sky, sky. Waiting there for me . The outer lock rolled slowly back. The servicemen were heard to sigh …

By: Jorge

Jorge — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:17:03 +0000

neoguru, it's not all that far off. Only 360 thousand kilometers. In space, that's nothing.

By: neoguru

neoguru — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:27:09 +0000

Sheese! I figured it was something left on the moon by astronauts. I even hallucinated footprints! Very good. I've been off before, but never THIS far off!

By: Kootstar

Kootstar — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:36:22 +0000

Don"t know exactly where or who took the photo, but it certainly is earthly and appears very much like the watermelon seeds that we used to grow from our summer treats when I was a kid. The shape of the seed is well matched shape and colored for that. Yes, a sprinkle of water makes "craters" like that.

By: Dori

Dori — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:11:02 +0000

I need to submit this to the 4-H Rabbit Club that my kid belongs to. Alien bunny!

But yeah, I'll agree that it's some sort of plant growing in sandy soil, as a rainstorm begins. Beautiful!

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:36:46 +0000

HAh! The European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) . Who sent you the photo!

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:33:44 +0000

That really looks like water drops in zero G. ISS all the way.

By: esun

esun — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:16:44 +0000

It looks like raindrop splatter on perhaps coarser sand. The polygonal larger patterning suggests a freeze-thaw cycle with no disturbance from plowing or such. So, it's some kind of plant growing in a colder climate country (Canada, eh?) ….

By: Feenixx

Feenixx — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:54:39 +0000

You didn't ask which space craft took it – so, it's probably Planet Earth… and likely Israel. Some of the craters almost look like paw marks.
The plants don't look like bean seedlings or cacti.
If I assume it's Israel, and it's a desert which has some rain, then they could perhaps be Opophytum forsskalii- which grows in salty desert sands – for example by the Dead Sea. Adults look like bundles and strings of green sausages – maybe seedlings look like this…..? I'm only guessing…

By: Aodhhan

Aodhhan — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:06:39 +0000

Seing it is possiblly in/near Israel… Somewhere near the Arava Desert as a very rare rain begins to fall?
Perhaps near the Dead Sea?

By: John M

John M — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:34:31 +0000

It is obvious, those are the ears of the energizer bunny. It was sent to Mars as an extra power source and is just wandering around until needed.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:02:47 +0000

I'll guess its some kind of plant growing inside a (earth) spaceship. say… the ISS.

otherwise it seems too freakin obvious!

well either that or an alien bunny coming out of its hole…

By: jay

jay — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:26:30 +0000

I agree with the above evaluations of the image. I think that it is a cactus plant. Could be anywhere on earth. Possibly it is a cacti farm beacuse you see some similar plants in the image.

By: Gianrix

Gianrix — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:19:16 +0000

It's a bean-bud born from a couple of days. The bean is the dark oval while the two leaves are above. The bean is suspended over a small root below it. The plant is growing on a sand surface. The "craters" are formed by water drops (rain or irrigation).

By: Ella Kosta

Ella Kosta — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:27:14 +0000

That is a plant, it's in air, but I don't know what kind of. Anyway, there's many, not just one. The soil is sand with small water drops craters.

By: Yael Dragwyla

Yael Dragwyla — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:47:00 +0000

I'll go with Earth-desert-cactus, probably Israel, or, at least, one or another country near Israel.

By: trux

trux — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:05:57 +0000

well, so the superscript two passed, but superscript minus was filtered after submitting the post, for some reason. Good to know anyway.

By: trux

trux — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:04:56 +0000

For Jorge: (off-topic for others, but may be useful when posting anyway)

this site supports Unicode charset (UTF-8), so you can use thousands of characters, including dozens of mathematical symbols directly, without any need for HTML. So for example the superscript two is character OxC2B2 in UTF-8, and on Windows machines can be typed as AltGr-2 or Alt-253. Or you can copy and paste it from one of many Unicode tables available on the net.

Superscript minus is 0×207B in UTF-8

9.8 ms?² or 9.8 m/s²

Now I only have to hope it really gets through the form

By: alfamonaro

alfamonaro — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:54:00 +0000

looks like a sandpit with heaps of coke bottle lid dimples and a weird looking seedling.

By: Pope Urban VIII

Pope Urban VIII — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:50:03 +0000

The question is moot. Earth is the center of the universe. Further nonsense such as this shall be met with Roman Inquisition.

By: pmf71

pmf71 — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:18:14 +0000

Where in the universe: Earth.
Spacecraft: None.

How's that for an answer?

By: Cuby

Cuby — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:51:52 +0000

It's a Blizzard in the dessert! Seen trough the windows of my eyes. I'm sure somebody will know someday.

By: Vagueofgodalming

Vagueofgodalming — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:31:07 +0000

Cocktail stick in a sandpit.

By: Sci-Fi Si

Sci-Fi Si — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:19:25 +0000

This is taken on a moon in the far reaches of the Solar system near the 'Oord' cloud

Its a Wienie van der Alien.

By: Randy

Randy — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:50:29 +0000

I don't know what planet it is but evedently Hugh Heffner has marked it as his own.