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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
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To: BenLurkin

Its a habitation dome. The inhabitants turned on the lights hoping we would notice and send ships to rescue them before there supplies and energy run out!

Or, it could just be methane ice reflecting the sun.


41 posted on 04/21/2015 7:10:47 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission ( I do operate on a different wavelength.)
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Their, not there....


42 posted on 04/23/2015 4:56:23 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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