Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Posted on 06/10/2015 8:10:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Naturally, when you try to capture details in something bright, your background will go dark. But that might be what’s needed here – a change in exposure to reveal more detail in the spots at the expense of the landscape. Doubtless NASA will release enlarged and detailed images of these enigmatic dots later this summer.....
Scientists still don’t understand the nature of the spot cluster, but reflective ice or salt remain the strongest possibilities.
“The bright spots in this configuration make Ceres unique from anything we’ve seen before in the solar system,” said Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission. “The science team is working to understand their source. Reflection from ice is the leading candidate in my mind, but the team continues to consider alternate possibilities, such as salt.”
It’s interesting to compare and contrast Ceres with Dawn’s first target asteroid, Vesta. Craters of every size dominate both small worlds, but Ceres shows evidence of a more activity in the form of relaxed crater rims (possibly due to ice deformation), landslides and collapsed structures.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
A giant ball of Aluminum foil.
Ping.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
could some kind of glass have formed their through a collision?
I was thinking gold.
Nice photo, very impressive. Lets get up there close enough to lick it.
If it’s salt or ice it’s a little odd that those are the only spots on Ceres’ surface.
Are you implying that it wouldn't be odd - if it were something other than salt or ice? What, for example?
Regards,
No, no implications at all. Just a straightforward statement.
No, no implications at all. Just a straightforward statement.
Then I ask you: Would it be less odd if it were something other than salt or ice? If not, then why not simply say: "It's a little odd that those are the only spots on Ceres's surface" - and not restrict it by mentioning salt or ice?
Regards,
I’d like to see the raw unprocessed images. The spots seem extremely bright to me. Nearly too bright to be salt or ice. In fact the objects are so bright, it appears they’ve been enhanced, altered or manipulated.
But I am not claiming that’s what happened here. It’s just how my eyes see it. Looks processed.
Because the scientists only mentioned salt and ice as their guesses.
Any infrared or UV pics? Any pics adjusted for the brightness of the spots, rather than the rest of Ceres? Any raw photo data available for the public?
I’m no expert, but I’ve read that the majority of the surface is dark like as asphalt. They bumped up the exposure to bring out detail in the dark surface, but that blows out anything that’s brighter than the dark surface. So the bright spots may be barely white, or gray.
That makes sense. Yep totally blown out.
You’d think they would have been more focused on these bright areas since they knew these features existed when the spacecraft imaged Ceres on approach long ago. I am surprised they didn’t shoot the target using several different exposures/filters etc. I think one of the cameras has 7 different filters, infrared mapping spectrometers etc.
Even at a distance of 45k kilometers back in February, these bright spots seemed extremely bright. Or were possibly captured using longer exposures back then as well.
Dude! Lay off the coffee!
It’s obviously the priests of the temple of Ceres.
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