Mar 8
Deep fractures on floor of Occator Crater, Ceres, Dawn probe.
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Deep fractures on floor of Occator Crater, Ceres, Dawn probe.
Blocks slide down the wall of Ceres' Occator Crater, Dawn probe.
Central ridge of Urvara Crater, Ceres, Dawn probe.
Views across dwarf planet Ceres, Dawn probe.
Block detached from rim of Urvara Crater, Ceres, Dawn probe.
Solar cell
Mysterious Bright Spots On Dwarf Planet Are Doing Something Really Strange
The mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres ‘brighten’ during the day - and change constantly.
The ‘spots’ were first seen by NASA’s Dawn Probe last year, and the strange, glittering object in the Occator crater, sparked wild speculation that it was an alien base.
It’s not - but it’s certainly very odd.
Researchers using the HARPS spectrograph at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile spotted not only the changes expected as Ceres rotates, but also that the spots brighten during the day and also show other variations.
These observations suggest that the material of the spots is volatile and evaporates in the warm glow of sunlight.
Paolo Molaro, lead author of the study: ‘As soon as the Dawn spacecraft revealed the mysterious bright spots on the surface of Ceres, I immediately thought of the possible measurable effects from Earth.
‘As Ceres rotates the spots approach the Earth and then recede again, which affects the spectrum of the reflected sunlight arriving at Earth.’
The team concluded that the observed changes could be due to the presence of volatile substances that evaporate under the action of solar radiation.
Flight Over Dwarf Planet Series
Flight Over Dwarf Planet Series
The prospect of humans traveling to the farthest reaches of our solar system is still, for now, kind of a problem. We’re delicate and fragile, and we have to carry a significant chunk of functioning ecosphere with us to survive in space. Sending probes out in our stead, to be our eyes and ears, solves two problems: first, they can withstand the rigors of space in ways we cannot hope to ourselves,…
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