NASA Poll: What's Creating Those Unusual Bright Spots On Ceres?

[6Foot2]

Link: What's creating those unusual bright spots on Ceres?

 

http://i.snag.gy/mlJva.jpg

[box_l]

Its a window, someone left a light on.

[6Foot2]

Current vote status:

 

http://i.snag.gy/HuFWK.jpg

[6Foot2]

 

A new video animation of dwarf planet Ceres, based on images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, provides dramatic flyover views of this heavily cratered, mysterious world. The images come from Dawn's first mapping orbit at Ceres, at an altitude of 8,400 mile (13,600 kilometers), as well as navigational images taken from 3,200 miles (5,100 kilometers) away. The images provided information for a three-dimensional terrain model. The vertical dimension has been exaggerated by a factor of two, and a star field has been added in the background.

[Patrick]

Reminds me of the salt deposits on Mars.

 

[X-13]

.

[caffrey]

I vote for these

 

[6Foot2]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]30908[/ATTACH].

 

I vote for these

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]30909[/ATTACH]

 

Both of these count as 'other?' I guess...

 

http://i.snag.gy/Q61R9.jpg

[Disaster]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]30908[/ATTACH].

Only this matters!

 

[6Foot2]

Edugeek poll attached.

[6Foot2]

New images of bright spots on Ceres:

 

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/images/wallpaper/PIA19630-1600x1200.jpg

 

Link: Dawn Mission | Images | Detail

[6Foot2]

Link: NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Maps the Surface of Ceres - The New York Times

 

The site includes an interactive 3-D map of Ceres:

 

http://i.snag.gy/f1x4j.jpg

 

...A composite image of Occator Crater reveals more details of the bright patches known as Spot 5, which are thought to be reflective ice or salt. This image was taken from 915 miles above Ceres...

 

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2015/01/15/dawn-ceres/assets/150909-PIA19889.jpg

[MrPstv]

Its the other Matt Damon film

[6Foot2]

[6Foot2]

Link: Occator Crater and Ceres' Brightest Spots | NASA

 

...Occator Crater, measuring 57 miles (92 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep, contains the brightest area on Ceres, the dwarf planet that Dawn has explored since early 2015. The latest images, taken from 240 miles (385 kilometers) above the surface of Ceres, reveal a dome in a smooth-walled pit in the bright center of the crater. Numerous linear features and fractures crisscross the top and flanks of this dome. Prominent fractures also surround the dome and run through smaller, bright regions found within the crater.

 

"Before Dawn began its intensive observations of Ceres last year, Occator Crater looked to be one large bright area. Now, with the latest close views, we can see complex features that provide new mysteries to investigate," said Ralf Jaumann, planetary scientist and Dawn co-investigator at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin. "The intricate geometry of the crater interior suggests geologic activity in the recent past, but we will need to complete detailed geologic mapping of the crater in order to test hypotheses for its formation."...

 

Crater's bright spots: