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Dwarf Planet Ceres' Bizarre Bright Spots Shine in Stunning Up-Close View
Space.com ^ | July 17, 2018 02:49pm ET | Mike Wall,

Posted on 07/17/2018 2:04:22 PM PDT by BenLurkin

"The new images of Occator Crater and the surrounding areas have exceeded expectations, revealing beautiful, alien landscapes," Dawn principal investigator Carol Raymond, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement yesterday (July 16). 

The $467 million Dawn mission launched in September 2007 with a bold goal: to orbit and study the two largest bodies in the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. Both objects are considered leftovers from the solar system's planet-formation period (hence the mission's name).  Dawn reached Vesta in July 2011 and eyed the object up close for more than a year, finally leaving for Ceres in September 2012. 

Dawn discovered the Occator Crater bright spots during its approach to Ceres in early 2015, and later found a number of other crater-associated faculae around the dwarf planet. The probe's observations have since revealed that the bright spots are salty deposits, composed primarily of sodium carbonate and ammonium chloride.

Scientists think this material was left behind when briny water boiled away into space, but they're not sure where, exactly, those brines came from — specifically, how deep underground the reservoirs were.

(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; brightspots; carolraymond; ceres; dawn; jpl; nasa; occatorcrater; science

1 posted on 07/17/2018 2:04:22 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

“The Sentinel”, Arthur C. Clarke.


2 posted on 07/17/2018 2:07:03 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: BenLurkin

“Dwarf Planet Ceres”

I think they prefer to be called “Little Planets” nowadays.


3 posted on 07/17/2018 2:16:38 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: yesthatjallen
“The Sentinel”, Arthur C. Clarke.

The SF story that Stanley Kubrick thought he could build "the proverbial 'good science fiction movie'" around.

4 posted on 07/17/2018 2:16:58 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: Boogieman; Gamecock; SaveFerris; FredZarguna; PROCON
You got that right!


5 posted on 07/17/2018 2:19:33 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: BenLurkin

Density of Ceres is 2.08 g/cm³; Earth density is 5.51 g/cm³.

So it’s not a thin rocky crust over a gigantic gold nugget.


6 posted on 07/17/2018 2:19:58 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: BenLurkin
"Ceres" by L. Neil Smith.

"Pallas" by same author is better, but they aren't visiting that dwarf planet. Too bad.

7 posted on 07/17/2018 2:21:14 PM PDT by backwoods-engineer (Enjoy the decline of the American empire.)
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To: BenLurkin


8 posted on 07/17/2018 2:41:33 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
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To: BenLurkin

The asteroid belt is not left over but part of the on going accretion process.

Accretion is the process of gravity in action and is the process of formation all over the known universe


9 posted on 07/17/2018 2:45:44 PM PDT by bert ((K. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... In our cities will be burning))
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To: ETL

The bottom picture cries out for a Whispering Bill Anderson song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pUDk6XcCSU


10 posted on 07/17/2018 3:01:37 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: BenLurkin

Not only is this Ceres, but it Hugh as well.


11 posted on 07/17/2018 3:03:33 PM PDT by C210N (Republicans sign check fronts; 'Rats sign check backs.)
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To: BenLurkin

Is that beyond the infamous Van Allen Belts?


12 posted on 07/17/2018 3:05:46 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: BenLurkin

The asteroids are leftover shards of Tiamat.


13 posted on 07/17/2018 3:47:27 PM PDT by Seruzawa (TANSTAAFL!)
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To: C210N

HA!


14 posted on 07/17/2018 4:10:39 PM PDT by citizen (President Trump: HeÂ’s combined The Art of the Deal with AlinskyÂ’s Rules For Radicals. Game over.)
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To: Boogieman

In the mid 70’s Isaac Asimov wrote an essay on the current state of knowledge of the body called, “ The World Ceres”. It was considered a planet when it was first discovered,in 1801, and might be again.


15 posted on 07/18/2018 3:13:15 AM PDT by jmcenanly ("The more corrupt the state, the more laws." Tacitus, Publius Cornelius)
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