Ceres Bright Spots are Salt? Says NASA

Well finally! They ruled out Ice. Must be Salt?


NASA thinks it knows what Ceres' mysterious bright spots are made of

"We believe this is a huge salt deposit," Dawn's principal investigator Chris Russell told a crowd of scientists Monday at the European Planetary Science Congress in Nantes, France, in a talk that was posted online Thursday. "We know it's not ice and we're pretty sure it's salt, but we don't know exactly what salt at the present time. "

Oh, thank God they cleared that up!! Phew!

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978
Oh, thank God they cleared that up!! Phew!

Yes thank god its not a Death Star Lazor.

Its probably salt, but my insane mind reads a message, I think the quote goes: a picture tells a thousands words. And it's shiny humans like shiny things.

a reply to: Xeven

Let's keep an eye on it... maybe some deer will come out and lick it.

Fools gold?
On Ceres?

Nah...LOL

Alien spaceport made out of rock salt?....

I guess we'll just have to assimilate to NASA timeline of 2030. That seems like the date they feel comfortable sharing with the feeders.

Looks like we need to depend on other nations for empirical data.

a reply to: DJW001

Or God will come out and throw Ceres over His shoulder.

Read the article, and watched the video of Dr. Chris Russell at the European Planetary Science Congress. Nowhere was any reference made to actual evidence for the bright spots being salt. He merely said they believed they were.

If they have something definite, like a spectrogram of chlorides, why not even a passing reference to it? If he's merely saying that salt is the most likely explanation, based on general principles of planetology, that's quite different from making an evidentiary case.
Dr. Russell indicated that the bright spots would have to be self-renewing, yet admitted that no indications of water vapor, which might have transported the salt there, had been detected in Occator crater.

ESA’s Herschel infrared space observatory found that the water that is in comet Hartley2, is nearly identical in composition to Earth’s oceans. That is a lot of salt.

One could imagine a comet impact creating Occator crater, and all of the water ice ablated over time, but the salt remaining.

The evidence could be right in our face.

So, where does salt come from?

Hey! I'm fascinated with science, but not knowledgeable.

Salt is leftover after Brine evaporates, according the dictionary. HEY...didn't NASA say that Brine flows on Mars? Maybe Brine is the most common substance in the solar system. Our human foundation is probably Brine. Well..we'll need to invent a new Brine health drink, won't we?

originally posted by: Annee
So, where does salt come from?

Hey! I'm fascinated with science, but not knowledgeable.

From the idea that comets are the remnants of the mixed oceans and crusts of one or more destroyed planets.
And that is still a ways off from being proven, if true.

a reply to: Annee

So, where does salt come from?

Salts are formed by the combination of an acid and a base. There are various varieties of salt. Many of which you would not want to sprinkle on your tomato.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Annee

So, where does salt come from?

Salts are formed by the combination of an acid and a base. There are various varieties of salt. Many of which you would not want to sprinkle on your tomato.

Thanks (all).

I did read that they hadn't determined which type of salt, yet --- so got there is a variety.

I'll keep that in mind --- next time I have a tomato staring up at me saying: "Salt. Give me salt".

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Annee

So, where does salt come from?

Salts are formed by the combination of an acid and a base.

Not necessarely. Salts can be formed when a solution of metal and halogen ions evaporates into a solid. Thus, Sodium Chloride (table salt) in our oceans originated from Sodium ions leached from minerals, and Chloride ions from volcanic gasses. en.wikipedia.org...

Instead of thinking of salt as a specific type of mineral, think of it as something originating from an evaporated solution of various metal and halogen ions.

a reply to: wildespace
Your source:

The presence of salt’s other dominant ion, chloride, results from outgassing of chloride (as hydrochloric acid) with other gases from Earth's interior via volcanos and hydrothermal vents.

en.wikipedia.org...

Instead of thinking of salt as a specific type of mineral, think of it as something originating from an evaporated solution of various metal and halogen ions.

Not all salts are halides.
en.wikipedia.org...


Another quote:

In chemistry, a salt is an ionic compound that results from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base.

en.wikipedia.org...

There does not have to be evaporation for the formation of salts.
www.docbrown.info...