Where In The Universe #60
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here's #60! 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 has now been posted below. Don't peek before you make your guess!
This is an image of clouds in Earth's atmosphere, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. The features here are called "cloud streets," this type of cumulus clouds form when cold air from the ice blows over the open ocean, chilling the moist air. As the temperature drops, water freezes into tiny clouds, which are arranged in neat rows in line with the powerful sweep of the wind. The clouds from this image are forming over the Bering Sea, and although some clouds form over the cracking sea ice on the right side of the image, most are over the unfrozen water.
To see a larger version of the image and to learn more about it, see NASA's Earth Observatory website.
Check back next week for another WITU Challenge!
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July 1st, 2009 at 10:31 am
OK, this has to be the Earth, with sea, fractured ice (an ice shelf, probably) and clouds, but this picture is at the same time gorgeous and seriously weird.
July 1st, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Earth
NASA's Terra satellite.
Beautiful picture.
July 1st, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I think that I saw either this picture or one similar to it on NASA's Earth Observatory picture of the day site a few months back. It was taken from a NASA satellite of ice and clouds in the arctic. The winds that caused the could formations have a funny name.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:19 pm
This is an odd one. My hunch is this is arctic ice. I can't figure out what the stripes are though.
July 1st, 2009 at 8:06 pm
an image of earth from the Space Shuttle or the ISS
July 1st, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I would tend to agree that it is Earth. It sort of looks to me like an ice shelf breaking up, but honestly, I have no idea.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:44 am
Planet Earth, at a guess… with ice breaking up, and the ripples could be one of those strange streaky high altitude cloud formations.
If I'm right so far, then it's probably a Terra Sat image.
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:18 am
You are an evil woman, Nancy!
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:26 am
definetly mars and pictures from spirit!
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:03 am
Yikes! This has gotta be the strangest WITU ever. Truly weird. I'm guessing Earth clouds, but they're the stangest I can imagine.
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:25 am
Whatever it is, it sure is pretty!
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:37 am
I believe that this is the moon Titan.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:40 am
Voyager 2 took this photo, if Titan is the correct answer
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:43 am
Sorry, my mistake, it is Titan and the spacecraft is Cassini, in my opinion
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:36 am
Bering Sea
MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite
July 7th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
clouds formed over the Bering Sea…