Where In The Universe #40

By Nancy Atkinson - January 28, 2009 at 3:02 PM UTC | Extragalactic

It's Wednesday, so that means its time for another "Where In The Universe" challenge to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. This is number 40! Woo hoo! See if you can name where in the Universe this image is from, and give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for the image. Make your guess and post a comment. Check back sometime on Thursday to find the answer and see how you did.

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below. No peeking before you make your guess!

This is Mercury, taken by MESSENGER in October 2008 as the spacecraft approached the planet during the mission's second Mercury flyby. This image shows nightfall on Mercury. It was taken by the Narrow Angle Camera, showing an area about 420 kilometers (260 miles) wide. The spacecraft altitude was 15,900 kilometers (9,900 miles). For more information about this image

check out the MESSENGER website.

Thanks for taking part in this week's WITU Challenge. Check back next week for more!

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