Where In The Universe Challenge #117

by Nancy Atkinson on September 1, 2010

It’s time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. Name where in the Universe this image was taken and give yourself extra points if you can name the telescope or spacecraft responsible for the image. Post your guesses in the comments section, and check back on later at this same post to find the answer. To make this challenge fun for everyone, please don’t include links or extensive explanations with your answer. Good luck!

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.

This is a thin crescent of Saturn’s third largest moon, Dione, taken by the Cassini spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera on May 17, 2010, and just released on Sept. 1. Cassini was about 394,000 kilometers (245,000 miles) from Dione, and the image scale is 2 kilometers (1 mile) per pixel. Just like seeing our own Moon as a crescent allows us to better see the craters along the terminator, the lit terrain seen here highlights the craters on Dione, as well.

See more about this image at the Cassini website.

Nancy Atkinson is Universe Today's Senior Editor. She also is the host of the NASA Lunar Science Institute podcast and works with the Astronomy Cast and 365 Days of Astronomy podcasts. Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador.

Tagged as: Where In the Universe?

  • DrFlimmer

    That’s no moon!

    It’s a space-station! However, the Empire made the dish too small in the first place (one can see it right in the center just right of the terminator), and the lasers of death couldn’t be focused properly to destroy planets. So they blew it up and rebuilt it.

  • Navneeth

    Moon. As much as I want to say, a camera on board LCROSS, I shall go with Chandrayaan.

  • dimtick

    Mercury taken by Messenger.

  • Sirius_Alpha

    That is Dione from Cassini (image name N00153941)

  • http://www.lightsinthedark.com J. Major

    Dione. Cassini. Very nice.

  • Spoodle58

    I would have said Mercury but the white dot on the right makes me say no idea.

  • Spoodle58

    Ah so after reading the comments I’ll still say what is that white dot on the right?

  • Sirius_Alpha

    @ SPOODLE58: I’m guessing just noise.

  • Jorge

    As anyone that follows Carolyn Porco on Twitter knows, this is Dione, from Cassini. ;)

  • Spoodle58

    @ SIRIUS_ALPHA

    Pity, was hoping for another moon in the background.

  • Sirius_Alpha

    That would be nice, eh?
    Unfortunately, the phase angle we’re viewing everything at would make any distant moons rather dim… not the bright cheery points we see here.

  • Lawrence B. Crowell

    Late again —- Dione taken by Casinni

    LC

  • http://toreblindheim.com proximacentauribeta

    Mercury and Earth…

  • http://toreblindheim.com proximacentauribeta

    My bad…! It’s Dione and Antenor Crater. The white dot might be the sun??

  • gopher65

    I cheated and did a quick search to find out what the heck that confusing dot is, and the team that released the image doesn’t say. So they either overlooked another moon in the image (or, more likely, their web-release person flubbed the caption), or Sirius_Alpha might be right about it being a bad pixel (possibly a cosmic ray strike on the detector).

    Since I looked it up I won’t answer.

  • neoguru

    Sneaky! I could be one of many moons around a number of planets in the solar system. Without seeing the actual image on the web, I’d have to guess it’s either Mercury or a moon of Saturn. Dione is as good as any. Of course there’s always the possibility it’s the Moon – reverse psychology!

  • Jon Hanford

    Nancy,

    Where in the Universe is the answer to Where in the Universe-116 ( http://www.universetoday.com/72078/where-in-the-universe-116/ )? :)

    Did I miss it?

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