Where In The Universe Challenge #143

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 is now posted below.

This trillobite-like feature showed up on a magnetic map of emerging sunspot 10926 recorded by the Hinode spacecraft in Dec. 2006. You can download a 5MB movie of the formation of this sunspot at this link. The picture, and the movie, are a magnetogram—a dynamic map tracing the sunspot’s intense magnetism. Black represents negative (S) polarity, and white represents positive (N).

Scientists said they had never seen anything like this kind of feature before. Read more about it on the Science@NASA website.

19 Replies to “Where In The Universe Challenge #143”

  1. I’m going to guess – and it is a guess! – that this is the Sun, and the spacecraft responsible is SDO. ?

  2. To be even more specific, SDO’s Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) took this picture.

  3. I like the Sun on this one.. and my first guess was SOHO. Then I read the comments and realized SDO made more sense.

  4. It’s a picture of my home shower stall. I’m thinking I should scrub it. And buy new locks, obviously.

  5. Trilobite sunspot, Hinode (Solar-B) mission, time-lapse magnetogram, Dec. 2006.

  6. I’m gonna go with Venus too, but I’m not confident. Reading the comments I’m inclined to think it’s the sun.

  7. Thought Mercury at first but reading the comments sure its SUN. The dark patches on the left are sunspots

  8. I go with sunspots but it has been filtered. It looks so much like the sunspot pics that were in universe a day or two ago comparing a few years ago with this year, but with color.

  9. radar from Titan lakes and not sure about bright spots maybe fresh ice dark are liquid filled, lets call them lakes. Cassini Mission

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