Where In The Universe Challenge #114

By Nancy Atkinson - August 11, 2010 at 1:37 PM UTC | Extragalactic
where-in-the-universe-114.jpg

Here's this week's Where In The Universe Challenge. You know what to do: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the universe this image is from; give yourself extra points if you can name the instrument responsible for the image. We'll provide the image today, but won't reveal the answer until later in the week. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below!

Tsk, tsk. A few of you posted links in your answer -- that's not allowed. Remember -- no links or extensive explanations.

This rather creepy-looking image could be construed as a cavern or the mouth of monster. It is actually a storm of billowing clouds blown by the winds from massive stars, and set aglow by their light. This is a nebula within cluster NGC1929, known as the N44 superbubble. This particular image was taken by the Gemini Multi-object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini South Telescope in Chile. You can read more about it on

this press release from Gemini

, or this

previous article on Universe Today

, or

this ESO article

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