Where In The Universe #96

By Nancy Atkinson - March 17, 2010 05:29 AM UTC | Site News

It's time once again for another Where In The Universe Challenge. Test your visual knowledge of the cosmos by naming where in the Universe this image was taken and give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft responsible for this picture. Post your guesses in the comments section, and check back on later at this same post to find the answer. This week's WITU challenge was submitted by UT reader Brad Jones -- thanks Brad! 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 an image of two galaxies -- M81 and M82, and was taken from the ground by Markus Schopfer using an 8-inch SC-Telescope and a Digital SLR.

See a larger version here.

M81 is a grand design spiral galaxy and pairs up with an irregular galaxy M82, sometimes called the "exploding Cigar." They are actually separated by 150,000 light years. This galaxy group is the nearest galaxy group to our own local group of galaxies.

You can read a great post about M81 and M82 by Tammy Plotner here.

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