Where In The Universe #63
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here's #63! 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
This is the Bullet Cluster, as seen by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. This image is very fitting for this week, as Chandra is celebrating it's 10th anniversary. What you're seeing here is two large clusters of galaxies that have crashed into one another at extremely high velocities. At a relatively close distance from Earth (3.8 billion light years away) and with a favorable side-on orientation as viewed from Earth, the Bullet Cluster provides an excellent test site to search for something very interesting: the signal for antimatter. Find out more about that and the image here.
If you enjoyed this week's WITU Challenge, check back next for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos!
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July 22nd, 2009 at 4:39 pm
This is a galaxy cluster, I think, within a cloud of molecular hidrogen. But I can't say which one. The image is a composite of a visible picture with another taken in different wavelengths (far infrared? Probably) Hubble and Spitzer perhaps.
Or maybe I'm utterly wrong…
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
The Bullet Cluster; the pink is x-ray emission (per Chandra), the rest is optical (per Hubble, but I don't know the camera – ACS?)
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
One of the X-ray observatories – Chandra or Newton – I don't remember.
Judging from the bow shock, I think it's the original Bullet Cluster – the first collision of galaxy clusters to show Dark Matter. Not in this image – the red is the gas heated in the collision.
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:52 pm
It looks similar to Abel 901, but there are departures in the images. The bow shock makes me suspect this is a more local nebula.
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Bullet Cluster with Chandra… but Nereid beat me to it
July 22nd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
It is either the Bullet Cluster, spacecraft Chandra and Hubble OR an intelligent female gaseous being that fell in love with a human male in Star Trek; the original series. It wasn't Captain Kirk that it fell in love with either!
July 22nd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Oh, and I believe that this image may contain some date from the Magellan telescope in Chile.
July 22nd, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Some date? Maybe if it is that female gaseous being I mentioned, otherwise I meant "data".
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Bullet cluster it is!
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:08 am
Merging galaxy cluster 1E 0657-55.8 (aka 'Bullet Cluster') imaged by Chandra in x-rays and a color composite by the Magellan telescope in Chile. Awesome composite image!
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 am
The question is "Where in the Universe?"
Answer: about 3.8 billion light years away.
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
OMG those are all galaxies, not stars! So it's gotta be galactic. Must be some glowing gases, but on a galactic scale. I'm close, judging from the previous replies!
July 24th, 2009 at 8:24 am
It is collosal, and about 4Bly away. It almost appears as a nebula with stars.