"Where In The Universe Challenge" Returns!

By Nancy Atkinson - July 25, 2012 at 10:13 PM UTC | Site News
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It's back! After a long hiatus, we're bringing back our weekly test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos, the

Where In The Universe (WITU) Challenge

. If you're new to UT, or in case you've forgotten, here's the drill: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the Universe this image depicts. Post your guesses in the comments section, and check back on later at this same post to find the answer. To make this challenge fun for everyone, please don't include links or extensive explanations with your answer. Good luck!

Also, if you have ideas for future WITU Challenges, send them to

Nancy

.

UPDATE: The answer has now been posted, below:

This is Gamma Cygni, also known as SADR, and the image was taken by astrophotographer César Cantú. Gamma Cygni is a yellow giant star, about 65,000 times brighter than our Sun, and it shows up as the bright star in the center of the image. The Gamma Cygni nebula consists of the pink cloudy region which can be seen surrounding Gamma Cygni. However, Gamma Cygni is actually not part of this nebula; it is a foreground star located half way between us and the nebula. The image looks deep into the Orion Arm of our the Milky Way Galaxy, and the nebula is more than 3,000 light years from us.

For this image, César used his Takahashi 180ED Epsilon Telescope and FLI 8300 camera, both on an Orion Atlas EQ mount.

See a larger version and more info on his website.

Thanks to César for sharing his image of Gamma Cygni! Check back next week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos!

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