5 ms·

Dawn Sends Sharper Scenes from Ceres

61 points by taylorwc 11y ago

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
That 1st picture - light from the right yet the '6km mountain' is shiny on the left. Perhaps its a 6km hole instead? Confused.
- teraflop 11y ago
  No, the light is coming from the left. You can tell because all of the other craters in the image are illuminated on the right-hand side.
  - guelo 11y ago
    So the mountain is immediately next to a similarly sized crater. Seems like that would be related though I can't imagine how it would have been formed.
    - crisnoble 11y ago
      Someone must have dug a hole and piled the dirt up.
      - chiph 11y ago
        Space Dwarves. Seriously though, the sides of that peak are pretty clean, so unless there's some atmospheric scrubbing action going on, it'd have to be pretty recent. I'm curious about how it could be formed - I would think that volcanic activity in a low-gravity environment would be ... messier.
jl6 11y ago
Don't wish to detract too much from NASA imagery, but their website is totally broken on stock Android browser.
mrfusion 11y ago
Any news on the mysterious bright spots?
- oofabz 11y ago
  Yes, this is covered in OP's link if you scroll down. Here is a link directly to the relevant section: https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/dawn/pia19617/occator-crater-enhanced-view https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/dawn/pia19617/occator-crater-enhanc...
ChuckMcM 11y ago
Wow, that is a stunning picture. It looks like a bullet hole in a windshield (top pic). What I don't get is if that is water ice why it isn't sublimating off at a huge rate. I would love to be, in a space craft, right there and be able to say, "Oh hey, that looks really interesting, lets go down and check it out. Sulu, you've got the helm."
- codezero 11y ago
  They're not sure it's ice yet, and it seems like it's more likely to be something else: the Dawn science team has not found evidence that is consistent with ice. The spots' albedo - a measure of the amount of light reflected - is also lower than predictions for concentrations of ice at the surface. caveat: this is from a separate article, but I think they are referring to the bright spots in general: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4677 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4677
- Symmetry 11y ago
  Distance from the sun is a huge issue with regards to whether you can have water laying around. From Jupiter's orbit out you often have tons of water on the surfaces of moons with no atmospheres. Where Ceres is it looks like water sublimes but not too quickly, so that patches of ice exposed by collisions last long enough for us to see them.
brock_r 11y ago
NASA's video shows the mountain nicely in 3D at the 1:06 mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inc9BtRip04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inc9BtRip04

61 points by taylorwc 11y ago

That 1st picture - light from the right yet the '6km mountain' is shiny on the left. Perhaps its a 6km hole instead? Confused.

teraflop 11y ago
No, the light is coming from the left. You can tell because all of the other craters in the image are illuminated on the right-hand side.
- guelo 11y ago
  So the mountain is immediately next to a similarly sized crater. Seems like that would be related though I can't imagine how it would have been formed.
  - crisnoble 11y ago
    Someone must have dug a hole and piled the dirt up.
    - chiph 11y ago
      Space Dwarves. Seriously though, the sides of that peak are pretty clean, so unless there's some atmospheric scrubbing action going on, it'd have to be pretty recent. I'm curious about how it could be formed - I would think that volcanic activity in a low-gravity environment would be ... messier.

jl6 11y ago

Don't wish to detract too much from NASA imagery, but their website is totally broken on stock Android browser.

mrfusion 11y ago

Any news on the mysterious bright spots?

oofabz 11y ago
Yes, this is covered in OP's link if you scroll down. Here is a link directly to the relevant section: https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/dawn/pia19617/occator-crater-enhanced-view https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/dawn/pia19617/occator-crater-enhanc...

ChuckMcM 11y ago

Wow, that is a stunning picture. It looks like a bullet hole in a windshield (top pic). What I don't get is if that is water ice why it isn't sublimating off at a huge rate. I would love to be, in a space craft, right there and be able to say, "Oh hey, that looks really interesting, lets go down and check it out. Sulu, you've got the helm."

codezero 11y ago
They're not sure it's ice yet, and it seems like it's more likely to be something else: the Dawn science team has not found evidence that is consistent with ice. The spots' albedo - a measure of the amount of light reflected - is also lower than predictions for concentrations of ice at the surface. caveat: this is from a separate article, but I think they are referring to the bright spots in general: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4677 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4677
Symmetry 11y ago
Distance from the sun is a huge issue with regards to whether you can have water laying around. From Jupiter's orbit out you often have tons of water on the surfaces of moons with no atmospheres. Where Ceres is it looks like water sublimes but not too quickly, so that patches of ice exposed by collisions last long enough for us to see them.

brock_r 11y ago

NASA's video shows the mountain nicely in 3D at the 1:06 mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inc9BtRip04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inc9BtRip04