Where In The Universe #73
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Ready for another Where In The Universe Challenge? Here's #73! 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 been posted below.
Doesn't the Moon look good in pink? Yes, this is our Moon, as seen in gamma rays by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. If you could see gamma rays – photons with a million or more times the energy of visible light, the Moon would appear brighter than the Sun according to astronomers who worked with the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET), which toiled in orbit on board Compton from April 1991 to June 2000.
EGRET's gamma-ray vision was not sharp enough to resolve a lunar disk or any surface features, but its sensitivity revealed the induced gamma-ray moonglow.
More info about Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
Check back next week for another WITU challenge!
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September 30th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I don't know for certain, but my guess is a black hole, possibly at the center of a galaxy, by the Chandra X-ray telescope.
September 30th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Yeah – something high energy with that resolution.
September 30th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Maybe Cygnus X-1 by the Chandra X-ray Observatory?
September 30th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Strawberry Fields by Paul McCartney with a Kodak camera and Kodachrome film.
September 30th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
It's the image of the Moon seen in gamma-rays by the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) in orbit on NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory.
September 30th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Stumped me on this one…although I'm sure once 1 person gets it, everyone after that will too
September 30th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
This has to be a super-giant blackhole in a massive galaxy … so my guess is of the first Chandra photos ever – Galaxy 3C295
September 30th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Isn't it obvious? It's a new kind of object called a pink blob. Similar to the purple blobs, only redder.
(Blobs aside? This picture looks familiar, but for the sake of me I can't recall a single thing about it. I'm sure it'll be one of those facepalm moments once the answer is revealed)
September 30th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Could be anything!
OK, so I'm going left field … it's a still from one of those simulations, perhaps the formation of a Pop III star?
September 30th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Could it be the inner coma of comet Hyakutake?
October 1st, 2009 at 6:24 am
It's clearly a false color image of the Eye of Sauron.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:26 am
What IVAN3MAN said.
The first time I saw this image it was posted as the profile background image of one of YouTube’s many “moon landing hoax” believers – the description was long the lines of “See all of that radiation coming from the moon?! This PROVES that humans couldn’t have gone to the moon and survived!!”. Seeing this image again made me think of that and smile.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:31 am
I say, this is one of those terrible illustrations of the BigBang (showing it as an "explosion in space" – on the other hand: I have no idea, how to show an "explosion of space").
October 1st, 2009 at 8:46 am
It is a gamma ray picture of the TARDIS materializing on the moon.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:50 am
The Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory has detected gamma rays from the Moon as it passed through the instrument field of view several times between 1991 and 1994.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Well, it appears that Jorge was closer to the mark with his "pink blob" guess than I was with my "supermassive black hole" guess. Next time, I'm rooting for the blobs. =D
October 1st, 2009 at 7:47 pm
facepalm
October 1st, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Strawberry fields forever!
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:43 am
Never for the life of me would have guessed it as moon…I spent atleast an hr searching for images on google…
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:33 am
vino – I don't see that you guessed anything. I think the idea is to try and guess what it is based on your own knowledge. Not necessarily what you can find on google.
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I could make the exact same images with a simple brush and an effect in photoshop…..