This Week’s Where In The Universe Challenge

This week’s Where In The Universe Challenge has a new twist. This image was actually submitted by one of our readers, Wienie van der Oord from Israel. Its quite an interesting image, don’t you agree?! I’ll not give any hints as to where Wienie got the image, or what it is, or whether this image can be found anywhere else on the web (for those of you that like to search online for the image and link the answer!). You’ll have to wait until tomorrow (Thursday) for the answer to be revealed for this week’s Challenge. My only hope is that some conspiracy theorist types don’t see this and claim this image is proof of life on an alien world. Or, possibly, could it really be…..?!

Check back tomorrow to find out! It will be interesting to see the guesses on this one, so submit ’em in the comment section.

UPDATE (1/8): The answer has now been posted below. No peeking before you make your guess!

This image was certainly a lot of fun, and it’s one you can’t find anywhere else on the internet. It was sent in by UT reader Wienie van der Oord, and I’ll let her explain what it is:

“After a short rainfall in the Arava desert in Israel, a tiny desert plant developed a root and two leaves and looked like an “alien” running over another planet,” she said. The raindrops formed the “craters” in the desert sand, and the root going down into the ground suspended the seed above ground, making it look like this little bunny-like creature was scooting across an alien world. The plant in question that has just sprouted is the Zygophyllum Dumosum, a shrub native to Israel that can be found in the Judean desert and Dead Sea Valley, the Negev Hills and Arava Valley. Wienie sent another image too, after she scooped up the little “alien” and put it in her hand:

If you’re partial to plants, here’s a Wildflower of Israel website where you can find out more about this shrub.

Thanks to Wienie for sharing this very “cute” image. If you have an original photograph you’d like to submit or a suggested image for a Where In The Universe Challenge, you can send them to me. To find my email address you have to visit my personal website, nancyatkinson.com . Sorry, I’m not going to be spammed to death by posting my email address!