Regarding Those Bright Spots on Ceres. . . WE WERE WRONG!

Dirty ice cube

news.discovery.com...


And Arthur Clark's diamond oceans in the novel 2061.

Perhaps!

Its obviously the reflection of the remains of an Octahedrite meteorite, which have a nickel content intermediate between the norm for kamacite and taenite; this leads under slow cooling conditions to the precipitation of kamacite and growth of kamacite plates along certain crystallographic planes in the taenite crystal lattice.

Ice is not the answer. Exposed ice would sublime, that is, evaporate into the vacuum of space. An impact could excavate through dirt and into the ice below and leave a temporary exposure but it would not last long. If it is ice the event would be of a fairly short duration, or, there must be a way to replenish the ice and keep it clean from dust and debris so we can see it. Any mechanism for producing the bright spots seems to be complicated at the very least. I am not expecting a trivial solution to this.

a reply to: Answer

I realize that what I'm about to post isn't at all what's happening on Ceres. But I put the picture you've posted side by side with a night shot of earth from space.




I wonder if we would actually recognize advanced life on a planet if we were to see it one day via images from a probe...

It`s mirrors,the smoke comes later!

photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov...

they're back!!! with the best photo so far! (still just 4.000km, though.)

a reply to: egidio88

I just saw that picture, so far nothing new?
Wait!
The big spot appears to have a quite sharp edge while the smaller spots appear rather smooth.
On the west of the big spot, there is a huge structure, nothing unnatural at first, but wait, it is not really located at the center, is the big white spot part of the structure?
What happened there?

May it be a similar to the yet "unexplained geological event" that created the huge "Pyramid on Ceres" hill? Maybe something completely different?

Man, the suspense is killing me. Every time we get a closer pic, nothing new is revealed.

a reply to: Drazzl

The sharp rdges are probably due to resolution even a circle is made of squares when looking at digital images.

Just an update for you all, better resolution picture here


Dawn Sends Sharper Scenes from Ceres

a reply to: bigx001

For HD Versions, better link to the original source in the future: dawn.jpl.nasa.gov...
But anyways, there was no new picture of the bright spots, the mountain and other craters are not on topic here i believe )

a reply to: bigx001

Thanks for posting that.

Maybe Ashfan is right?

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

NEW PICTURE -- awesomer and awesomer.

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

a reply to: JimOberg

Were have the alien buildings gone

Latest updates on the bright spots of Ceres that may be constantly changing,

www.space.com...

a reply to: tigertatzen

But it is definitely reflective rather than shining with its own light source then?

Looking into the information available from the Framing Camera, it may be that the light detected is luminous, and not reflected. The filters for thr FC are all centred at well establish emission lines, and I think the light of the bright areas is at 438nm, they did mention the light is blue-ish. That would be a Helium line, but other materials may have emission lines in the range of the filter, so no positive identification can be made.Trying to make sense of the data from the FC is frustrating to the point of futility. It does appear though that there is no visible light of an intensity that our eyes could detect, it is far too faint.
If you click on the Framing Camera links at this page, you get a 404 from the Max Plank Institute.
photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/Dawn?subselect=Target:Ceres:
(Link wont work on ATS site, have to cut and paste the url)
Raw data sets are available here, good luck figuring it out.
sbn.psi.edu...
As far as I can determine then, there is no reflected sunlight, it is higher energy solar radiation causing the spectral emissions that are detected. The same is true of data from Mercury Messennger. Even though closest to the Sun, there is no evidence of any SUNLIGHT!