Ceres: Finally new images from Dawn. "Dawn Glimpses Ceres' North Pole"

In this new series of animated images, the bright spots appear again, at one point, to be present when all the terrain about them is dark. That's a neat trick for a flattish looking, reflective phenomenon.
Also, it's not clear that the bright spots are optically resolved yet, especially the brighter of the two. With per pixel definition at 1300 meters, this begins to raise some very interesting questions about the possible need to revise the calculated albedo upward.
The reflective area of an object 1300 meters in diameter is only one eighth that of one that is 3.7 kilometers across, the smallest figure we had to work with, up 'til now.

originally posted by: Xeven

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: raikata
UPDATE! New photos. BRIGHT SPOTSSSSS!

dawn.jpl.nasa.gov...

And the two below look flat... Like an ice field..

Frozen lakes?

It is thought that there is plenty of water locked up in Ceres, but a lake of just water ice would probably sublimate away into space. If it is a water-icey feature, it may be water bound up with other minerals, allowing it to remain on the surface when it otherwise should sublimate.

We now have a statement from Dr. Chris Russell, Primary investigator for the Dawn mission: The bright spots are still too small to resolve, he says. Given a reflective surface area reduced eight-fold, since the previous images, and a prior albedo estimate of 0.40, the latter figure must, it seems, now be well over unity.
Since even a perfectly reflective surface can not reflect more light than it receives, the possibility of the bright spots as a source of light no longer looks so out of order.
Link to article on new Ceres images, and quote from Dr. Russell:
www.nbcnews.com...

a reply to: Ross 54
Can you point to that statement by Dr. Chris Russell . It doesn't appear to be there.

There is this statement:

Update for 2 p.m. ET April 20: UCLA's Christopher Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission, sent along this follow-up email:

"I have nothing to add to Carol's comments besides the fact that the small size of the bright spots resulting in our inability to resolve them is as agonizingly frustrating to the science team as it is to the public following the progress of our mission. The data coming down in May will have better resolution, but we still cannot guarantee it will be good enough to unambiguously determine the source of these mysterious bright spots. Argh..."

www.nbcnews.com...

I am literally checking the internet every few hours for updated photos and information on this mission. It has captured my imagination in a way I haven't felt since Sojourner.

originally posted by: All Seeing Eye
a reply to: Ross 54
Can you point to that statement by Dr. Chris Russell . It doesn't appear to be there.

There is this statement:

Update for 2 p.m. ET April 20: UCLA's Christopher Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission, sent along this follow-up email:

"I have nothing to add to Carol's comments besides the fact that the small size of the bright spots resulting in our inability to resolve them is as agonizingly frustrating to the science team as it is to the public following the progress of our mission. The data coming down in May will have better resolution, but we still cannot guarantee it will be good enough to unambiguously determine the source of these mysterious bright spots. Argh..."

www.nbcnews.com...

I did not attempt to quote Dr. Russell, as this had already been done in the article. I merely expressed the same information in my own words. The quoted email from Dr. Russell makes it clear that he is saying that the bright spots could not be resolved at this time, and that the reason for this was their smallness. The rest of my post, after the sentence ending with 'he says.', were my own remarks.

a reply to: Ross 54

Well that changes everything you sick bastard!