Posted on 05/25/2015 1:34:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin
As Dawn descends toward its closest orbit around Ceres, it has been imaging the spots along the way, gradually giving us a less pixelated view of the large crater containing what now appear to be several bright spots reflecting the sun back at us. What once looked to be a large bright spot near the center of the dwarf planet soon split into two smaller, nearly adjacent spots upon closer inspection. In the latest view from Dawn, shot on May 16, those two large spots seem to be resolving into several smaller bright spots.
The leading guess from NASA scientists at the moment is that we're seeing some sort of natural reflective surface like ice on the surface of a body that's expected to harbor quite a bit of frozen water beneath its rocky shell.
However, NASA has asked the public for an opinion via online surveys at least twice in the last several months, and so far most humans don't seem to believe (or want to believe, perhaps) that those spots are something as common as patches of ice. In an ongoing survey on the Dawn mission site, "other" is the most popular choice. In another, earlier survey, "frozen lakes" come in second to "underground light soil uncovered by recent meteor impacts." "Something completely different" is the third most popular choice.
While closer views of the spots reveal that they may be smaller and less monolithic than at first glance, they're also getting arguably weirder.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
My guess is ice below the surface revealed by an impact.
You’re so bad! :)
Been following this. So wild.
The one on the right with lighted corners is oddly symetrical.
Crystal cities?
There is more to worry about in space than dust, rocks, and radiation ...
Ice or fresh debris gouged out from a comet or meteor.
I can confidently say the answer is "yes".
As for us, it says 700m per pixel, so you could guess the pixel width, or go to the Dawn site and get the true resolution. I'm gonna say "tens of kilometers wide" for the big one.
That spy satellite only had 22000 miles to travel, 22000 miles to transmit data back, and only had a couple of years to live.
Dawn has to travel hundreds of millions of miles, has multiple destinations to go to and orbit, and has to transmit its findings up to ~360 million miles back to earth.
Furthermore the imaging systems on Dawn need to take care of multiple roles. Spy satellites have but one job: image minute detail from just one focal distance: 22000 miles.
Rocket science ain’t easy
You don't actually think they're showing us what NASA has to work with, do you? I have a leaked photo of one of the REAL Ceres photos here - just a tad better than what they let US see...
Those are some tough-looking spots. I hope we sent the ultra-concentrated Dawn!
Ice.
“For the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky”
thanks
Excellent.
Yer way out of date. That was the initial pass back in March or so. Right now, as of May 26, 2015 02:03:09 UTC, it's at an altitude of 3750 miles, with rockets on!
Actually no I’m not out of date. The NASA data is current.
Science writers are morons.
Dude, its on the dark side just over 40,000 miles out. My data is from NASA and is in real time whether you like it or not.
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