Spotty Ceres baffles boffins with bright patches The Dawn spacecraft sent by NASA to investigate the asteroid belt's largest bodies has spotted a second bright spot on the surface of Ceres, sparking speculation that the dwarf planet might be significantly stranger than first thought. Dawn is slowly approaching Ceres using its ion drive to match orbits, and its latest …
I don't understand your comment.
The only thing that I can find about Bolden's view on extra-terrestrials is:
Bolden said, "J.R, I must admit, everybody that goes into space wants to see an alien or wants to see evidence there is other life in the universe and I am no different. But I am here to report that I saw no evidence. Although deep in my heart I believe there is good potential for other life in our universe."
Sounds reasonable enough.
Most of Ceres is VERY low reflectivity stuff. These two spots are reflecting 40% of incoming light. It looks like SO much more because they are vastly overexposing the dark-stuff to bring up some detail. The reflectivity of these spots is about the same as an iceberg (in Earth terms).
They will go much farther with this unusual contrast photography with New Horizons, in the coming months.
These could be blown highlights, especially if exposure/ISO/aperture are set for extreme low-light conditions, and so may not contain much in the way of useful information.
Presumably photos optimised for the light spots rather then Ceres itself should reveal more about the source. The brightness and colour of the light could be accurately determined, which in turn could give hints as to the origin, size, temperature, etc.
And yes, I'm guessing that the rocket scientists have probably considered this already(!)
My spine is tingling about this. It could be really really exciting!
I'm not quite sure how it could be ice be it CO2 or water. It's doesn't look like a deep well sheltered crater. Surely anything there like that would sublimate very quickly when exposed to the sun?
I hope this is something major, I really do!
All those mega pixels and it's 'scope should sure as heck resolve it though. No more mysteries soon!
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