bright spots on Ceres

[Gandahar]

MartG said:

MiniMan64 said:

MartG said:

That 'dome' looks like a volcano to me

Tectonic activity on something that small?

It depends what the 'lava' is made of I guess - frozen mud slurry could be formed under certain circumstances

What would warm rock powder and frozen water to become mud slurry though?

I think it's just ejecta now from recent impact ( hey, it is in the asteroid belt!) . Which is slightly less exciting than some things suggested, however it may show the underlying terrain. It's very white after all, like the cliffs of Dover. Fossils !

[TheEnd]

Spot a mountain, and no one cares.
Call it a "pyramid", and it'll go viral.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/23/us/feat-ceres-py...

[Moonhawk]

TheEnd said:

Spot a mountain, and no one cares.
Call it a "pyramid", and it'll go viral.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/23/us/feat-ceres-py...

You yell SHARK........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB8m0CI4Kfg

[jmorgan]

Cast yer votes......

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/dawn/world_ceres/


Edit. Went for "other", ejecta patterns around one at least.

Edit 2. Of course it could be a few reasons?

[Eric Mc]

Went for "Ice".

[K12beano]

My vote still remains with: "Major Clanger invented something"

[maxjeff]

It looks like a relatively new crater (it has very defined edges compared with the others) I wonder if it suggests Ceres has an ice like crust with a dust coating covering the whole surface. The "bright spot" could be a result of the impact blowing away the dust in the area revealing the ice.

This would explain how it is brighter in the middle and fades..

[MartG]

New photo of one of the bright areas here

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-d...

[MartG]

Apparently the current consensus amongst the team investigating the bright spots is that they are salt

[jbudgie]

MartG said:

Apparently the current consensus amongst the team investigating the bright spots is that they are salt

Where did you read that. Is there a link?

[MartG]

jbudgie said:

MartG said:

Apparently the current consensus amongst the team investigating the bright spots is that they are salt

Where did you read that. Is there a link?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/07/10/the-weird-white-spots-on-ceres-might-not-be-ice-after-all/?postshare=1751436554981278

[jbudgie]

Thanks.

[MiniMan64]

Two visits to Dwarf Planets this year and two completely different worlds full of suprises.

I love science.

[Moonhawk]

Just reading an article about the bright spots which suggests there may be a haze associated with them (plume?).

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-ceres-mysterious-brig...

Looking at the image they have on the article - there does seem to be a couple of what could be faint shadows at the 1-2 o-clock position away from the bright spots.

What do people think?

[jmorgan]

Plume not the same colour as the lighter stuff? Gases out and blew the surface away but cunningly did not dislodge light stuff? Or the darker stain is the dusting and the shiny is heavy? Or impact of a small object is the stain and the new exposed shows as such?

[Eric Mc]

Or could be a genuine shadows cast by fine material floating above a vent. That's how the geysers on Triton were first spotted.

[FunkyNige]

Also around the edge of the inside of a crater now...


Pic from http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19628

[CrutyRammers]

New pics out - massive so I've not embedded it.
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails...

Definately some sort of encrustation. Perhaps a langoustine.

[perdu]

Mining

See how they've taken away all the good mineral round the crater edges and now they've begun to sink a deep shaft

Cerean unobtanium

Aliens then, see the tractor heading for the crater wall at 12 o'clock








Seriously that is a fabulous picture, there must be some amazing things happening inside Ceres for all that frequent activity (now we're watching) to show up

Some pictures really make me wish I was a spaceman, fastest guy alive

[littlebasher]

Space Jizz?