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back to article Spotty dwarf Ceres BARES ALL in NASA's SHINY CLOSEUPS

The two bright patches on dwarf planet Ceres have been spotted again by NASA astroboffins. The patches baffled boffins who didn't expect the worldlet to shine so bright, or indeed shine much at all. Tinfoil-hatters quickly came up with all sorts of theories about the patches, especially after NASA had nothing to say about them …

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  1. Martin Budden Silver badge
    Pint

    "worldlet"

    I thought you'd just made that up, but it is actually in the dictionary. I learn a new factlet every day.

    7 0 Reply
  2. Mystic Megabyte
    Unhappy

    Flying squid

    It's very slack of elReg not to tell us how much a giant squid weighs on Ceres.

    And what is a squid's escape velocity?

    We need to know this sort of stuff.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/21/manhole_cover_octopus_inferno/

    10 0 Reply
    1. FartingHippo
      Reply Icon
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Flying squid

      Escape velocity? The celestial wandering squid would have to be prised off with [ten] crowbars, at least until she gets to within springing distance of Earth.

      Paris because, you know, suckers.

      0 0 Reply
      1. dorsetknob
        Reply Icon
        Alien

        Re: Flying squid

        Ceres Home worldlet of

        kudos and kang

        YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

        1 0 Reply
  3. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Clearly, no mirrors. True.

    But the one at 2 o'clock on that picture - most certainly an exclamation point. On a hatch, obviously.

    Abandon hope, he who enters... Etc.etc.

    1 0 Reply
    1. VinceH
      Reply Icon

      Re: Clearly, no mirrors. True.

      Edward Nigma's top secret off-world base, obviously.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Magani
        Reply Icon
        Happy

        Re: Clearly, no mirrors. True.

        Is he any relation to Anna?

        0 0 Reply
        1. VinceH
          Reply Icon

          Re: Clearly, no mirrors. True.

          Edward Nigma is also known as The Riddler in Batman if that helps - but it doesn't matter, because I had a strange brain fart moment when I wrote that: the symbol most associated with The Riddler is (duh) the question mark, not the exclamation mark.

          1 0 Reply
  4. flearider

    it's just a giant diamond covered in dust .. oh btw (sarc)

    0 0 Reply
  5. circusmole

    Obviously...

    ...it is the Clangers, they've been polishing their dustbin lids.

    7 0 Reply
  6. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long -

    - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy.

    3 0 Reply
  7. Kristaps

    Giant mirror

    The particularly bright one at the end of the GIF looks like it's bang in the middle of a crater. Can it be some of that internal liquid ocean leaking after an impact (frozen now obviously)? Maybe it's just really reflective? So far no bright spots have been seen on the dark side, right?

    0 0 Reply
  8. Evildon

    Beer anyone?

    Have you ever played Star Control? The first one, that is.

    on Pluto humans find very stupid aliens. It turned out to be on Ceres..

    By the way Ceres is a beer in Denmark:

    http://www.royalunibrew.com/Default.aspx?ID=174

    1 0 Reply
    1. Martin Budden Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Beer anyone?

      The brewery and the dwarf planet were both named after the same god. The name of the god means "to grow", with particular reference to growing grain: the main ingredient of beer.

      0 0 Reply
  9. Bert 1
    Alien

    Have an upvote

    For mentioning one of my favourite old Megadrive games.

    It's up there with Jetpac on the Spectrum IMHO :-)

    0 0 Reply
  10. PleebSmash
    Alien

    the good stuff

    I've been confused about when the good pictures will appear. Here's when:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft)#Ceres_orbit

    Orbit...Dates...........Altitude..Orbital....vs. Hubble

    RC3.....April 23–May 9..13,500km..15 days....24×

    Survey..June 6–30.......4,400km...3.1 days...72×

    HAMO....Aug 4–Oct 15....1,450km...19 hours...215×

    LAMO....Dec 8–end.......375km.....5.5 hours..850×

    You ain't seen nothing yet.

    11 0 Reply
    1. Kristaps
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Re: the good stuff

      Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

      This and New Horizons (along with lots of other great endeavours) make me really excited about these times we live in.

      A hypothetical pint because it's still early here!

      5 0 Reply
      1. John Sanders
        Reply Icon
        Boffin

        Re: the good stuff

        If only we had another couple of spacecraft orbiting "Uranus" or "Neptune" this would have been the best 20 years ever for space/solar system exploration.

        (I was going to write a robot probe on Uranus, but somehow it sounds bad)

        0 0 Reply
        1. cray74
          Reply Icon

          Re: the good stuff

          "If only we had another couple of spacecraft orbiting "Uranus" or "Neptune" this would have been the best 20 years ever for space/solar system exploration"

          Yep, but the gas giant orbiters keep getting cancelled.

          "(I was going to write a robot probe on Uranus, but somehow it sounds bad)"

          Most recent Uranian mission concepts suggest sending a probe plunging into Uranus to investigate its gassy depths, the way the Galileo atmospheric probe did at Jupiter.

          3 0 Reply
      2. Pedigree-Pete
        Reply Icon
        Pint

        Re: the good stuff

        Kristaps. Too early! Didn't you know beer is for all day, not just for breakfast. :)

        4 0 Reply
        1. Kristaps
          Reply Icon

          Re: the good stuff

          My apologies. (to the pub!)

          1 0 Reply
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: the good stuff

            Ayyy LMAO, in that case.

            1 0 Reply
      3. Captain DaFt
        Reply Icon

        Re: the good stuff

        "This and New Horizons (along with lots of other great endeavours) make me really excited about these times we live in."

        True, but for me, also a bit depressed. After all, it's all 'look but can't touch'.

        I want to walk on a distant world under an alien sun, but it'll never happen.

        1 0 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: the good stuff

          I want to walk on a distant world under an alien sun, but it'll never happen.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategies_for_Engineered_Negligible_Senescence

          0 0 Reply
    2. Simon Harris
      Reply Icon

      Re: the good stuff

      "LAMO....Dec 8–end.......375km.....5.5 hours..850×"

      Oops - I read that one as LMAO.

      1 0 Reply
  11. Alistair
    Coat

    Ceres "shiny shiny"

    That ! probably has "do not open until <date>" scrawled underneath it.

    Likely in puppeteer.

    3 0 Reply
  12. Elmer Phud

    Not mirrors

    It's what happens when you go for cheap double-glazing and pay half upfront.

    They've fitted two windows and then buggered off.

    0 0 Reply
  13. ravenviz Silver badge
    WTF?

    1 MB?

    I'm gonna need a bigger hard drive!

    2 1 Reply
  14. Comedy of Errors

    Obviously...

    It's where the surface camouflage has slipped off the Death Star. Look carefully and you can even see a huge dish like indentation in the top left where the main weapon fires.

    2 0 Reply
  15. Stevie

    Bah!

    No-one gives a flying f*ck about the "heavy cratering". Tell us about the shiny!

    Tch! "Scientists".

    0 0 Reply
    1. JCitizen
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Re: Bah!

      Fer sure! Everyone knows God likes to throw rocks!

      0 0 Reply
  16. oldfoxbob

    It actually the Marty Martian 326584 Earth disintegration gun pointed at us...oh my.

    0 0 Reply
  17. Bernard M. Orwell
    Coat

    "NASA had nothing to say about them for days after... [] ...We now know that silence was caused by Dawn swinging around to Ceres' dark side"

    Is that because radio silence prevents NASA from talking about things they've already discovered? Are NASA actually aboard the probe then? Can NASA only do one thing at a time?

    ...or is it that they just don't like saying "We don't have a clue what that is."?

    No TFH needed, but I'll get my coat.

    1 0 Reply

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