Where In The Universe Challenge #104

By Nancy Atkinson - May 12, 2010 at 11:06 AM UTC | Extragalactic
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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 telescope 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, the Hon. Salacious B. Crumb -- thanks Salicious! 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 might be a WITU first. No one got the right answer! (although Jon came close...)

This is NGC 7702, a very unusual ring galaxy found in the southern constellation Phoenix, (at 23h 35m 29.1s ?56deg 00' 45"). Lots of telescopes have taken images of this object, but this image if from the European Southern Observatory, and you can

see the image here.

This abstract

from R. Buta at the University of Alabama describes the galaxy as, "NGC 7702 is found to be a true S0(+) galaxy with a bright high-contrast inner ring and a faint low-contrast outer ring; the inner ring is significantly elongated relative to typical SB inner rings and has colors which suggest a burst of star formation less than 2 Gyr ago."

Thanks again -- and kudos -- to the Hon. Salacious B. Crumb for sending in this image, which seems to have stumped everyone this week!

Check back next week for another WITU 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