Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ceres' bright spots are back: Dawn captures new images of mystery features - and scientists STILL...
MailOnline ^ | Jonathan O'Callaghan

Posted on 04/20/2015 8:06:31 PM PDT by BenLurkin

As the spacecraft gets closer to the dwarf planet and moves around it, more and more of the surface is coming into view.

The two brightest spots seen in a crater are known as ‘spot 5’.

The scale in the image is about 1.3 miles (2.1km) per pixel, almost 70 per cent better than previous images.

But the origin of the bright spots remains a mystery for now - with theories ranging from exposed ice to volcanoes.

Salt flats or ice seem to be the predominant theories at the moment, with the bright spots appearing to reflect incoming sunlight towards the spacecraft’s cameras.

Until Dawn gets closer, though, it’s unlikely the mystery will be resolved.

‘It’s too early to say what they are,’ Dr Marc Rayman, Dawn's mission director and chief engineer, told MailOnline.

‘Some people have offered they might be ice, but I don’t consider that necessarily the most likely explanation.’

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last
To: sten

Respectfully, that’s absurd.


21 posted on 04/20/2015 10:34:05 PM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker
Glowing in the dark - especially at the same brightness level - pretty much dumps the reflection hypothesis for me.

If it's aliens, they obviously want to be seen.


22 posted on 04/20/2015 10:34:12 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker

The last person who left Ceres forgot to turn off the lights.


23 posted on 04/20/2015 11:18:32 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (fair dinkum!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Fred Nerks
The last person who left Ceres forgot to turn off the lights.

Must be some of them thar new fangled LEDs to last this long. . .

24 posted on 04/20/2015 11:20:52 PM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users contnue...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker; All

It’s a Berserker and the shiny spot is just a bit of metal showing through the otherwise pounded surface from the last solar system it sterilized...


25 posted on 04/20/2015 11:46:34 PM PDT by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker
maybe chemiluminescence

PHOSPHORUS

Phosphorescence is the slow decay of a metastable electronic state to a lower energy state through emission of light. The decay is slow because the transition from the excited to the lower state requires a spin flip, making it classically forbidden. Often it involves a transition from an excited triplet state to a singlet ground state. The metastable excited state may have been populated by thermal excitations or some light source. Since phosphorescence is slow, it persists for some time after the exciting source is removed. In contrast, chemiluminescence occurs when the product molecules of a chemical reaction (HPO and P2O2 in this case) leave the reaction in an electronically excited state. These excited molecules then release their excess energy in the form of light. The frequency (colour) of the light emitted is proportional to the energy difference of the two electronic states involved.[5]

26 posted on 04/21/2015 12:06:47 AM PDT by Fred Nerks (fair dinkum!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

WOOPS! Didn’t mean for that to be in red...


27 posted on 04/21/2015 12:07:56 AM PDT by Fred Nerks (fair dinkum!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Axenolith
It’s a Berserker and the shiny spot is just a bit of metal showing through the otherwise pounded surface from the last solar system it sterilized...

At this point, that may be as good an explanation as any.

28 posted on 04/21/2015 12:10:28 AM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users contnue...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Segregated swimming pools...


29 posted on 04/21/2015 4:08:15 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

30 posted on 04/21/2015 5:04:45 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Talisker

Lol


31 posted on 04/21/2015 5:07:35 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: jjsheridan5

Excellent


32 posted on 04/21/2015 5:57:11 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Explanation of the bright spot: A powerful laser propelling a space ship with "light sails".

33 posted on 04/21/2015 5:59:37 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MrB

Nice!


34 posted on 04/21/2015 6:00:17 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Swordmaker

It’s a colony of Earthlings, set up by Marconi and his people when he built flying saucers and they left for Mars.


35 posted on 04/21/2015 7:54:15 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; dayglored; ...
Extra to APoD.

36 posted on 04/21/2015 7:55:11 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

I’m thinking its ice.

In the graphic you can see as the spot emerges from the dark that its a raised spot in the center of a crater like a rebound mountain.


37 posted on 04/21/2015 7:58:24 AM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

/bingo

Ice has a higher albedo than whatever covers most of the surface of Ceres.


38 posted on 04/21/2015 8:00:09 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

We’ll know a lot more when they start doing spectral analysis when Dawn settles into a true orbit.


39 posted on 04/21/2015 8:03:29 AM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

Maybe it’s the priests of the temple of Ceres.


40 posted on 04/21/2015 2:19:33 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson