This Week's Where In The Universe Challenge

By Nancy Atkinson - April 22, 2009 03:09 PM UTC | Extragalactic

Its time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. And this is the official WITU challenge for this week, even though

Anne's article today about the mystery blob

is another challenge. But we'll let the professional astronomers handle that mystery! The goal of this challenge is to test your skills and knowledge of the cosmos. This week's image was sent in by one of our regular readers, Vino. Guess where in the Universe this image is from and give yourself extra points if you can guess if a spacecraft or another type of instrument is responsible for the image. Post your guess in the comment section (no links to hints please, and no torturing Vino to get her to tell the answer!) Just check back tomorrow to find out the answer. Good luck!

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.

Well, Vino, we didn't fool everyone. As some of you guessed, this is a beach (although no one guessed

which beach

!) But it really does look like the surface of a moon or Mercury. Vino took this picture last year of the beaches of the Blackpool resort in the UK. "I didn't realise the picture would turn out the way it did when I took it," Vino said. "These were the result of tides....and completely camouflaging. I fooled a few of my friends as well."

Thanks for sharing your picture, Vino! And if anyone else has images they would like to share or suggest for future WITU challenges, send them to me at nancyatkinson04 at yahoo.com.

Check back next week for another Where In The Universe Challenge!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com