Unknown bright spots in dwarf planet

[Deleted]

http://www.euronews.com/2015/02/27/m...s-puzzle-nasa/

Scientists getting their first ever close-up look at the dwarf planet Ceres say they’re puzzled by bright spots that have been revealed on its surface.

The images come from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which is using a slow-but-sure ion drive to edge into orbit around the planetoid, and should reach position by 6th March.

The reflective patches will give science fiction conspiracy theorists plenty to talk about, as they resemble bright city lights on an alien planet.

In reality there’s a good chance that they are areas of water ice, perhaps formed by volcanic activity on this 950 kilometer diameter planetoid, the largest single lump in the asteroid belt between*Jupiter*and Mars.

The science team behind Dawn weren’t expecting to have this kind of conundrum on their hands when they arrived at Ceres.

“This is truly unexpected and still a mystery to us,” said Andreas Nathues, lead investigator for the framing camera team at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Gottingen, Germany.

“This may be pointing to a volcano-like origin of the spots, but we will have to wait for better resolution before we can make such geologic interpretations,” said Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission, based at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dawn will spend the next 16 months orbiting Ceres and sending back science data and images of the surface.

The spacecraft has already visited Ceres’ smaller cousin, the giant asteroid Vesta- at 525 kilometres, it doesn’t quite warrant the dwarf planet label – and gave scientists a bonanza of 30,000 images of the planet.

Aliens? Ice? Old God's tomb?

[lockedout]

Shiny rocks.

[Rukh]

http://www.euronews.com/2015/02/27/m...s-puzzle-nasa/


Aliens? Ice? Old God's tomb?

Probably just the jump gate hidden inside ceres.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Charon_Relay

[Revi]

ion drive to edge into orbit around the planetoid

Oh my god, we're living in the future.

Woho!

[Deleted]

It's a planet full of mirrors!

[uopayroll]

The lights also appear to move.

Found out later there was something on the lense.

Billions spent on a spacecraft, someone forgot to go to Costco and get a set of $15 wiper blades...

[Deleted]

Probably diamonds. Maybe ice. Definitely radioactive.

[Deleted]

[Bartumus22]

It would be nice to find out its aliens. Then again, we could already be surrounded.........

[lockedout]

Aliens, obviously.

Did somebody say aliens?

[RigidCannibal]

It's clearly the Mi-Go.

[Ciddy]

Aww, someone beat me to the History Channel "ALIENS" guy.

I've been watching that and the New Horizons mission. It'll be really awesome to see some good images of Pluto when we get there in a few more months.

[Wildtree]

Oh snap, they found Charlie Sheen's cocaine deposits

[Afrospinach]

Oh my god, we're living in the future.

Woho!

Ion drives have been around for quite a while! But they make a pruis look like a ferrari.

[Deleted]

Probably diamonds. Maybe ice. Definitely radioactive.

This. There's probably some reflective material on the surface of the planet. Case closed.
There's no point in going full X-Files mode on this article.

[Deleted]

[Maximus Testiculos]

It is probably just gas.

[Gumboy]

Its probably something broken on the camera or a random reflection from a glitch :P Those things are super precise.

[DEATHETERNAL]

I wish it would be something that would blow the mind of the collective world, but it's probably nothing.

[Rooflesstoofless]

I think it's liquid water being ejected into space, but:

-If it is then I think NASA should drop their geological fetish shit and get something out there to really explore the dwarf planet.
-Whether it is liquid water or not it seems really unusual for the reflection to be so well centered in the crater.

EDIT: Let's not forget Nazis. It could definitely be Nazis.