Comparison of HST and Dawn FC images of Ceres taken nearly 11 years apart. Credit: NASA.
Posted on 01/20/2015 3:23:34 PM PST by BenLurkin
One of the most anticipated aspects the Dawn spacecraft being in orbit around Ceres HAS to be finding out what this spot is. It could be ice, it could be a cryovolcano or geysers, or it could be something else. But we do know fairly certain that it is a real feature and not an image artifact, since it shows up in most of the recent Hubble images and now the Dawn images.
Planetary scientists have long suspected that water ice may be buried under Cere’s crust. A few things point to subsurface ice: the density of Ceres is less than that of the Earth’s crust, and because the surface bears spectral evidence of water-bearing minerals. Scientists estimate that if Ceres were composed of 25 percent water, it may have more water than all the fresh water on Earth. Ceres’ water, unlike Earth’s, would be in the form of water ice and located in the mantle, which wraps around the asteroid’s solid core.
And then last year, the Herschel space telescope discovered water vapor around Ceres, and the vapor could be emanating from water plumes — much like those that are on Saturn’s moon Enceladus – or it could be from cryovolcanism from geysers or icy volcano. Without huge planet or satellite nearby tugging on it, the mechanism for how Ceres is active is also intriguing.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Alien Mother Ship....?????
Could be ice or it could be titanium oxide like we see on the moon.
Could be a vast military installation.
John Belushi, aka, “Blutarksy”, had the answer many decades again, “ZITS”! Maybe volcanic ZITS!
Are we CEREOUS about this? Absolutely not! “In Space, No One Can Hear You Laugh”.
Saw some of “Alien” last night for the 900th time. Never loses its edge and Ripley “Rocked”.
Hugh and Ceres
ping
Its just a monolith. MY GOD, ITS FULL OF STARS!!!
Wow, who knew that Michael Moore had conquered space travel...
Belly button.
You win!
Since it’s a white spot, it’s obviously racist. Expect Rev. Al to start his bitchin’ any time now.
A white spot? Send rev’runt Al to protest!
I asked for chocolate
Finding the source of the water vapor detected, on an airless body this close into the solar system will be interesting, too. Occam's razor says the Spot on Ceres is a lighter material, an area less optically mature, perhaps nothing more than an impact crater, or a remarkable Mars-like dune plain.
Either way, should be pretty interesting. First Ceres, three months later, Pluto's close-up, about wrapping up the major players in the star system I was born into.
It’s a tarp covering the field where the local Ceres baseball team plays its home games. They’re in a rain delay.
Looking back at us....?????
Is there a black dot in the middle of the white spot? Upon magnification, do the dimensions have a ratio of 1:4:9?
Zit?
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