Where In The Universe #67
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here's #67! 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 colorful image is of NGC 346, the brightest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic cloud, a dwar galaxy that orbits the Milky Way at a distance of 210,000 light-years. It combines X-ray, infrared and visible light captured by ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope — so a composite from space- and ground-based telescopes.
This images was released in October 2008 and it provides a new information on how stars in the Universe form. This image shows that wind- and radiation-induced star formation are at play in the same cloud, telling astronomers that star formation is a complicated process comprising different competitive and collaborative mechanisms.
Learn more about his image here.
Thanks for participating in this week's WITU challenge, and check back next week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos!
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August 19th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
You have stumped me. Usually it's easy to sort out planets, but nebulae? You win.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Ah, I love to be completely stumped like this, and it's been a while. I only know this is a Chandra image. The rest? Beats me!…
August 19th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
That S shape is familiar, am is the galactic center again?
August 19th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
A nebula, not a clue which one, but what a beautiful image!
August 19th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
A nebula for sure. No idea which one, but I think it might be in the X-ray or the IR spectra. Pretty.
August 19th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I recognize NGC 346 and it seems like a combination of IR and X-ray. I'd guess IR from Spitzer and X-ray could be either from Chandra or XMM-Newton (Rossi doesn't look at these kind of objects)
August 19th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I second NGC 346. It does appear to be a composite image
LC
August 19th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Tricky: spacecraft can be a plural noun
August 19th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
looks like violent star forming results, however, I pass on what it is!!!! I am defeated!!!!
August 20th, 2009 at 1:05 am
It is a Spitzer image, but I have no idea of what exactly. Kinda looks like a supernova or planetary nebula, but I could be way off.
August 20th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Got it. It is NGC 346, scibuff seems to be right!
Spitzer / XMM-Newton
August 20th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Looks a lot like the Eagle to me, but what do i know?
August 20th, 2009 at 2:47 am
All i know is that it is a form of nebular which is not taken with visible…Hence it could be Chandra or Spitzer…
But it looks beautiful!!
August 20th, 2009 at 4:36 am
Spitzer, a star-forming region in our own MW galaxy (or possibly the SMC or LMC) … but which one?
August 20th, 2009 at 6:04 am
I'd guess NGC 346 in the SMC by the Spitzer Space Telescope.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:40 am
Just a small note, in the EXIF data of the image I could find a Spitzer copyright note, so that kinda gave it away. Might wanna check that next time