back to article MYSTERY PARTICLE BLASTS from Ceres strike NASA probe Dawn

The not-quite-planet-but-jolly-big-for-an-asteroid Ceres continues to give up its secrets under the unwinking gaze of NASA's Dawn probecraft, now in orbit about the planetoid. New developments include the naming of various features on Ceres and the detection of a mysterious particle blast from the enigmatic dwarfworld. " …

  1. AndrueC Silver badge
    Joke

    and another named Jaja, after the Abkhazian harvest goddess

    That's a relief. Thought for a minute there someone had elevated an annoying Star Wars character to the status of 'agricultural diety'.

  2. Mystic Megabyte

    Slump?

    The Occator crater looks more like a giant sinkhole than an impact crater. I've no idea how that could work unless it's the lair of the White Worm :)

    1. Vulch

      Re: Slump?

      One possibility is that the crust is a thin layer of rock over a layer of ice. The impact blasted out a normal crater but the ice underneath has crept back to nearer level and is mostly covered over again by dust and rubble.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Slump?

      looks more like a giant sinkhole than an impact crater. I've no idea how that could work...

      That's St Albans, not Ceres!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Slump?

      This is no cave! -Han Solo

  3. Winkypop Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    We are exploring Ceres

    Ceres!

    The science is amazing.

    What a time to be alive.

  4. lawndart

    This harvest theme could run and run. Will they continue the Ceres and make a cereal of it?

    1. Crisp

      Oh no! Not harvest puns!

      At yeast you used your loaf and put some thought into it.

      1. SteveK

        Re: Oh no! Not harvest puns!

        Indeed - nothing worse than when someone takes some a-maize-ing accomplishment and makes a ceres of corny jokes.

        1. ravenviz Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: Oh no! Not harvest puns!

          I'm sure we'll all upvote the wheat from the chaff!

          1. frank ly

            Re: Oh no! Not harvest puns!

            I think there should be a mountain range called The Alpens.

    2. Martin Budden Silver badge

      Tip Top work!

      Those NASA boffins are out standing in their field.

  5. NormDP

    Looks like a caldera. Yellowstone on Ceres.

  6. Mage Silver badge
    Alien

    A giant ancient starship?

    Intriguing internal moistness

    emitting particles

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: A giant ancient starship?

      Either that, or a dormant starship right under the surface.

      1. MacroRodent

        Re: A giant ancient starship?

        You mean like the Shadow ship found on Mars (in Babylon 5). Better not dig it up...

      2. Captain DaFt

        Re: A giant ancient starship?

        "Either that, or a dormant starship right under the surface."

        Dormant? It's firing its electron cannons at us! This means WAR!

        1. Wzrd1 Silver badge

          Re: A giant ancient starship?

          "Dormant? It's firing its electron cannons at us! This means WAR!"

          Bloody hell, don't you recognize a standard scan? It scanned, but is confused as to why contact hasn't been initiated or even a return scan.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I always thought that eggs came from fowl

    Now I see you can grow them on a plant. When will the transgenic madness end?!

  8. Alister

    mystery particle blast which rattled the probe's sensors

    Shame on those Boffins!

    Don't they recognise the signature of an energy weapon when they see one?

    The message couldn't be clearer... STAY AWAY!

    1. Peter Simpson 1
      Happy

      Re: mystery particle blast which rattled the probe's sensors

      Ob: "That's no moon!!!"

  9. Chris G

    Four mile high pyramid

    What more proof does the world need?

    This is clearly a major base for the Annunaki! They are returning

    Cereously!

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Four mile high pyramid

      Neah, It is more of a case of characters with yellow eye flashes prone to violence due to their parasite gone nuts from sarcophagus abuse.

  10. Stevie

    Bah!

    Prediction: mysterious electron flux events traced to instrumentation electronics announcing "goodbye cruel cosmos".

  11. Christoph

    "a crater dubbed Vinotonus, after the Celtic Briton god of vines"

    But there's nothing named for Charlie Mopps!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aliens

    That is all.

  13. Florida1920
    Megaphone

    Bursts of energetic electrons

    It's telling us to stay off its lawn. We have been warned.

    1. Pirate Dave Silver badge
      Pirate

      Re: Bursts of energetic electrons

      Maybe it's warning us to stop taking pictures of its lawn. After all, it moved 400+ million miles away so it could be escape Google's StreetView car.

    2. Mark 85

      Re: Bursts of energetic electrons

      Are there any other kind of electron? I thought they were all rather "energetic"....

  14. knightred
    Black Helicopters

    And yet NOBODY has spoken the truth about this new data

    That this is yet another NASA/Muslim conspiracy to make American's believe there are other "worlds" in the solar system aside from the only New World, America. In order to get more grant money for Climate Change research and to promote the soon to be announced movie: "The Cerian". I mean the proof is right there Ceres/Syria! I must inform my NRA government representative and my local AM talk show host immediately, through telepathy, as every other method is monitored by the MIB!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And yet NOBODY has spoken the truth about this new data

      " I must inform my NRA government representative and my local AM talk show host immediately, through telepathy, as every other method is monitored by the MIB!"

      Too late, that is considered electronic communication and is dutifully monitored by the NSA. After all, what about the telepathic terrorists?

      1. Alister

        Re: And yet NOBODY has spoken the truth about this new data

        what about the telepathic terrorists?

        Oh, you mean Scientologists...

  15. Faux Science Slayer

    EVERY atom, save Hydrogen, in the entire Universe is FISSIONABLE

    We live in a false paradigm reality bounded by faux science, fake history, filtered news, financed by a fiat currency and directed by our ruling, evil, Demonic Warlords.

    The rate of solar and cosmic ray particles vary, causing variable decay rates, a baseline determinate for 'climate' on Earth. These same processes are at work throughout the Universe, continuing until there is one, evenly distributed Hydrogen and Helium cloud billions of years in the future. In the meantime we are being herded like sheep in a matrix of elitist propaganda to avoid seeing their corrupt reality. End this feudal nightmare.

    "Becoming A Total Earth Science Skeptic" at the Faux Science Slayer site, find and share Truth

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