Dawn Assumes Survey Orbit; Photographs Bright Spots on Ceres with Best Clarity Yet

originally posted by: Osiris1953
I'm glad we have some better images now. Guessing it's a metal deposit of some sort. Not that I have a decent answer, it's a puzzler to be sure.

For the time being. As Dawn gets closer, I'm sure we'll get an answer. My bet is on frozen gas of some sort.

Duh? It's a lens flare!

Haha..

Seriously though can it just be the type of exposure/ camera?

It's a bio-luminescent spawning pool for the soon-to-be dreaded Ceresian Crust Monkeys.

(Hey, it's as good a guess as any, right now).

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
Wouldn't it be funny if it was just some really old garbage an alien ship dumped while passing through?

Humans have a nasty habit of littering wherever we go...

That's interesting, imagine all the bods and boffins at NASA getting orgasmic over a load of shiite, never mind us all posting about it, (by request from NASA) of course.

originally posted by: ProfessorChaos
It's a bio-luminescent spawning pool for the soon-to-be dreaded Ceresian Crust Monkeys.

(Hey, it's as good a guess as any, right now).

Holy crap, that would make an excellent band name. Bravo, sir. Bravo.

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance

originally posted by: ProfessorChaos
It's a bio-luminescent spawning pool for the soon-to-be dreaded Ceresian Crust Monkeys.

(Hey, it's as good a guess as any, right now).

Holy crap, that would make an excellent band name. Bravo, sir. Bravo.

This

a reply to: EartOccupant

They don't post temperature data because it not going to provide any useful information from as far out as it is...

The resolution of the temperature camera is much lower than the one being used.

When they finally get to where they want to be, the thermal camera will be able to give something useful.

Ice castles on Ceres. Inhabited by the ice people that evolved from ice.

Or, aliens wasting electricity.

You be the judge.

a reply to: Ross 54

Looks like diamonds.

Somewhat boringly, it's most likely an 'object' that has passed by a planet and fragmented, shot gunned Ceres with a load of material, thereby exposing ice within it's interior.

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance

originally posted by: ProfessorChaos
It's a bio-luminescent spawning pool for the soon-to-be dreaded Ceresian Crust Monkeys.

(Hey, it's as good a guess as any, right now).

Holy crap, that would make an excellent band name. Bravo, sir. Bravo.

Nah! Pseudo-treehuggers already got there, Arctic Monkeys, Snow Patrol, blah blah..if you want to know that is!

A question to everyone posting here;what are the actual specs of the spacecraft 'cams' ? ( and obviously how many and of what types of spectral data can this craft obtain?)

a reply to: HawkeyeNation

Just curious but doesn't it take geological activity or organic a to create methane? And from what I understand methane is short lived because bombardment by radiation breaks it down. I'm more leaning toward a type of glass or frozen water.

originally posted by: Silverlok
A question to everyone posting here;what are the actual specs of the spacecraft 'cams' ? ( and obviously how many and of what types of spectral data can this craft obtain?)

The images with the bright spots were taken by Dawn's "Framing Camera": dawn.jpl.nasa.gov...
It has a clear filter and 7 band-pass filters covering the wavelengths from the visible to the near-IR. Some more specs are covered here: en.wikipedia.org...

It's a 150mm f/7.9 camera with a 1024x1024 CCD sensor.

It's to be hoped that time will be found to take such an image

Well that sounds kind of flaky

"well we hope to have high resolution photos, and an answer, but we're just not too sure.....fingers crossed"!

originally posted by: canucks555
I'm more intrigued now than ever. What's the consensus? Salt? It looks sorta like an impact. Like a sugar meteor hit it,

Me too.

But now is the time for wild theorizing, NOT 'consensus'.

The weirder the better.

If we didn't go out there expecting to be gobsmacked, why bother at all?

Pluto will be weirder.

Especially the as-yet undiscovered feature to be named 'Alkestis Planitia".

originally posted by: MamaJ
Duh? It's a lens flare!

Haha..

Seriously though can it just be the type of exposure/ camera?

The grayscale IS stretched to enhance contrast but for eyeballs it probably also looks weird, if not as starkly white.

if it was some other sort of civilization it would be spread out over a wider area... So could it be a shipwreck?

If it is some sort of deposit or exposed crystalline geod or something, why not more of it, since the whole planet would be composed of it, and more than 2 impacts would have uncovered this... Curious.

When the planet is in the darkside, does this still shimmer?

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

today's picture. That's not "our beloved crater," right?

a reply to: egidio88

If so that really does look like nothing more than some sort of shiny residue from an impact.

Obviously NASA has taken this time to doctor the photos and hide the alien civilization.