Closer view of Ceres shows multiple white spots

phys.org ^ | 02-06-2015 | by Bob King, Universe Today

[Red Badger]

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has acquired its latest and closest-yet snapshot of the mysterious dwarf planet world Ceres. These latest images, taken on Feb. 4, from a distance of about 90,000 miles (145,000 km) clearly show craters – including a couple with central peaks – and a clearer though still ambiguous view of that wild white spot that has so many of us scratching our heads as to its nature.

Get ready to scratch some more. The mystery spot has plenty of company.

Take a look at some still images I grabbed from the video which NASA made available today. In several of the photos, the white spot clearly looks like a depression, possibly an impact site. In others, it appears more like a rise or mountaintop. But perhaps the most amazing thing is that there appear to be not one but many white dabs and splashes on Ceres' 590-mile-wide globe.

Here the spot appears more like a depression. Frost? Ice? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Here the white spot is at the asteroid’s left limb. You can also see lots of additional smaller spots that remind me of rayed lunar craters. Of course, they may be something else entirely. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Look down along the lower limb to spot a crater with a cool central peak. Note also how many white spots are now visible on Ceres. The mystery spot is a little right of center in this view. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Our mystery white spot is further right of center. Is it a rise or a hole?Are the streaks rays for fresh material from an impact the way the lunar crater Tycho appears from Earth? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Yet another view of the mystery spot. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

[Red Badger]

Now let's take a look at an additional NASA animation of Ceres made using processed images. As the spot first rounds the limb it looks like a depression. But just before it disappears around the backside a pointed peak seems to appear. Intriguing, isn't it?

[Red Badger]

Astronomy & Space Ping!...................

[Red Badger]

Mystery solved...................

[sparklite2]

The white dots are from craters going down deep enough to expose the planet’s underlying ice mantle. Sad to say, Earth isn’t the only planet overrun with ice holes.

[cripplecreek]

[GraceG]

[Colofornian]

Nqsa white-out used to wsz ew ar z tu 7cover up humanoid cities of Ceres

[VTenigma]

Alien base, all your base are belong to us.

[WILLIALAL]

MST3K ..... Perfect! Loved that show, when Joel was the star.

[TBP]

Ceres is racist!

[The KG9 Kid]

If it's a depression and not just some photographic artifact making it seem so, then we might deduce it's a comet strike which would make sense since Ceres' vicinity to Jupiter along with it's goofy orbit causes it to be a target just asking to get clobbered. They speculate that Ceres is probably just a captured Oort Cloud object itself, drawn in by Jupiter long long ago.

If it is a comet strike, then it seems that Ceres is less like a planetoid and more like a giant hunk of comet-like material that's been rounded over time by gravity. Its surface would be more like very compressed frozen vacuum cleaner lint than anything like the giant ball of iron the Earth is made of.

Jupiter, that lunatic planet, simultaneously tries to murder us and rescue us in relation to these Oort Cloud objects striking the Earth. Knowing what we know now, we might have chosen a better name for a fickle classical Roman/Greek diety to represent the largest planet in our Solar System.

[spawn44]

Son, I say Son. That not an egg, that there is an egg.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Red Badger. Extra to APoD.

[odawg]

When I see pictures like this, it makes me wish I had been shown all these kinds of pictures at once when I was about twelve years old. I use to watch the sky on cloudless, cold nights. I have seen some strange stuff, too.

[SunkenCiv]

http://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/pia19179-16.gif