6 Mar 2015 - NASA Spacecraft Becomes First to Orbit a Dwarf Planet

[NASA]

6 Mar 2015 - NASA Spacecraft Becomes First to Orbit a Dwarf Planet
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has become the first mission to achieve orbit around a dwarf planet.


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[amor]

Will they communicate with the Earth Space Fleet's ship in the crater of Ceres which is brightly lit up?

[Atlas]

Cratered Surface of Ceres



The surface of Ceres is covered with craters of many shapes and sizes, as seen in this mosaic of the dwarf planet. The mosaic is comprised of images taken by NASA's Dawn mission on Feb. 19, 2015 from a distance of nearly 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers). An unusually large basin nearly 186 miles (300 kilometers) across is seen just south of the equator, with a shallow interior, faint rim and low-relief mounds within. Several bright spots are seen, including two that are very bright and lie within a single crater north of the equator. The bright spot in the center of that crater is too small to be resolved at this distance, so its true brightness is not yet known.

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/dawn/pia18923/#.VPp3L_mUeSp

[Lifebringer]

Now how do you think they'll explain that set of lights on this small planetoid?

[Atlas]

8 possible explanations for those bright spots on dwarf planet Ceres

1. A salt flat. It's not exciting, but one of the possibilities mentioned by NASA and others is that those bright spots are simply the reflection of large mineral deposits on the surface of Ceres left by some sort of impact, or from earlier days when it may have been covered by water. In other words, we might not be seeing anything more interesting than a big pile of salt or talc.

2. Shiny metals. NASA's Raymond says the brightness of the spots is consistent with a highly reflective material. On Earth, polished silver and aluminum are among the most reflective surfaces you can find, which is why they're used in large telescopes. While it's not clear if anyone would be available on Ceres to be doing the polishing, there's reason to believe both metals could exist there. Plenty of precious metals have been found in meteorites, and aluminum is actually the most abundant metallic element in the Earth's crust. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to imagine that nearby rocky dwarf planets also harbor some as well.

Also, how do we really know that all our aluminum cans are really recycled? Who's to say they aren't being launched toward the asteroid belt?

3. Exposed ice. Ice can be another highly reflective material, and scientists think Ceres has plenty of the stuff below its surface. So what if an asteroid or comet collided with Ceres, puncturing a hole in that rocky shell and exposing the icy layer below to the sun?

4. Water vapor. Perhaps there are geologic processes happening on Ceres that caused some of its ice core to melt and then get shot out into space via a geyser of sorts. In 2014, the European Herschel telescope detected plumes of water vapor emanating from Ceres, and guess what? One of the plumes was located in the same area as the bright spots we're seeing now. Even if the spots aren't actually plumes, they could be involved in the explanation.

5. Ice volcanoes. This explanation kicks off the second, more out-there half of our list. Cryovolcanoes, or volcanoes that spew water or ice rather than lava, are believed to exist in the colder reaches of the solar system, and it would make sense to see them on Ceres given what's suspected about its water and ice content. However, the observations of the area around the bright spot give no indication that there are raised sections consistent with a volcano or piles of whatever type of debris it might fling about.

6. Aliens' solar concentrators. In a 2008 TED talk, physicist and futurist Freeman Dyson suggested that the dwarf planets of the outer solar system, near Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, would be a good place to look for life. Dyson thought that although finding it might be unlikely, it might not be that hard to search if we simply looked for the reflection of the mirrors and lenses that any life forms would surely need to concentrate sunlight to survive on places like Europa and beyond. It sounds far out, but could it be that we've just found some ancient, abandoned solar concentrators even closer to home than Dyson imagined?

7. Genetically engineered colonists from another civilization. In the same talk, Dyson also suggested that if we don't find life forms hanging out in the cold reaches of the outer solar system, we should genetically engineer our own life forms to go check it out. Obviously, we haven't reached that point yet, and we tend to favor sending robots rather than clones of ourselves with frost and radiation resistance, but what if another distant civilization beat us to the punch and has sent mutant, genetically enhanced images of themselves to start poking around in our asteroid belt?

8. It's a spacecraft. Finally, as many of you devoted CNET readers have suggested, the bright spots on Ceres seem to resemble headlights.

So, sure, why not allow for the possibility that Ceres itself is a spacecraft in disguise? And yes, I recognize its aesthetic similarity to the Death Star. If that's the case, I guess it's a good thing SpaceX is already working on its "X-wing" designs as we wait for the next chapter in our real-life space mystery.

Source: http://www.cnet.com/news/8-possible-...-planet-ceres/

[Harley]

Now how do you think they'll explain that set of lights on this small planetoid?

I see several brighter spots in this photo, most of which appear to be within craters.

The two brightest spots which are making all the headlines are probably simply at a better camera-to-sun angle to offer greater reflectivity.

I say it's ice.

[Atlas]

Posted by Harley (here)
I say it's ice.

The most plausible explanation IMO.

[seeker/reader]

Posted by Harley (here)

Now how do you think they'll explain that set of lights on this small planetoid?

I see several brighter spots in this photo, most of which appear to be within craters.

The two brightest spots which are making all the headlines are probably simply at a better camera-to-sun angle to offer greater reflectivity.

I say it's ice.

As the planet rotates away from the sun you can clearly see that the two bright spots are not reflections of the sun, as they stay equally as bright during the rotation. The other spots that are reflections dim as the planet rotates away from the sun.

The set of bright spots can not be reflections. They are something else.

[Carmody]

they can be a brightness differential, one that is very high in reflectivity differential.

The camera is receiving very low light levels. it is probably receiving near 'saturation' levels of light in those two small areas, compared to that of the surrounding areas. Since the camera exposure times and processing is set for the other 99% of the surface area, the small area is overexposed, or saturates the sensor system.

the cameras 'poop out' quality wise, when the contrast levels hit about 1000:1, at the max. In reality, the max CR of even the best cameras is about 700:1. Lenses are no better, as this is a combined sensor/lens number. If I had a camera that could produced a perfectly graduated and clean 1000:1 contrast ratio, in the world of cameras, any camera market, even the $200k camera market, I'd be a camera god and 'pwn' that entire industry.

with Ceres it is a case of exposing the ccd sensor at the correct level to get an average quality of contrast for the darker areas so a good image can be obtained. The price of doing that, is that the brighter more reflective area is overexposed and comes up as 'saturating' the ccd imaging device, and when processed comes up as being 'bright white'.

The contrast ratio numbers they give you for your TV are, for the most part, faked via image hardware manipulation tricks, combined with careful wording for the ignorant (to make the sale to the ignorant).

I'd like it to be something else, but....too bad, it probably isn't.

[Harley]

As the planet rotates away from the sun you can clearly see that the two bright spots are not reflections of the sun, as they stay equally as bright during the rotation. The other spots that are reflections dim as the planet rotates away from the sun.

The set of bright spots can not be reflections. They are something else.

This is not a true video format. It is a collection of time-lapsed stills which have been stitched together and then animated through the use of the .gif format. But I bet you already knew that.

The thing here is that as the planet rotates each still shot is the same shot as the original which has been moved towards the right with the next newer shot stitched onto it's left, thus giving the illusion of rotation.

Notice how you don't see the lights coming in from the left and then they suddenly appear in the center of the video, but then you can watch them rotate to the right until they disappear? That's because the shot of them when they first appeared in the center is the one and only shot of them and is being reused to stitch the newer shots to.

Don't buy it? Try this:

Focus your eyes on ANY crater and follow it until it disappears to the right. Can you see any change in perspective whatsoever in that crater as it rotates away from you? I cannot!

As a matter of fact if you look closely at one of the larger craters just before it disappears you can plainly see that it is the same exact straight-on shot that you seen when it was in the center of the video.

[seeker/reader]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SkHh6FTKPYg

Published on Apr 3, 2015
The biggest mystery so far is that while approaching Ceres on February 19th at nearly 29,000 mile away, Dawn took images of Ceres that showed one bright glint from further away is actually two bright spots inside a crater. In NASA-animated images of revolving Ceres, the two spots still look so bright as the crater rotates into the dark side away from sunlight. Web tweets started asking if those were alien E. T. technologies lighting up the crater?

[Star Tsar]

SV Astronomy Lectures

Now Appearing at a Dwarf Planet Near You: NASA's Dawn Mission to the Asteroid Belt

Dr. Rayman, the Mission Director for the Dawn exploration of Vesta and Ceres, explains the unusual mission (the first to orbit two different bodies in the solar system), what it found at Vesta, and what it is going to do when it gets to Ceres, the largest asteroid and the first dwarf planet discovered. He also gives a behind-the-scenes tour of the Dawn launch and the ion propulsion that allows it to visit multiple targets.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=j_3jKyqAIqY

[seeker/reader]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uwky8qFuPSY

Published on Jun 18, 2015
On June 6, 2015, NASA/JPL released a new image from the DAWN spacecraft at the lowest altitude to date: 2,700 miles above the surface. Triangular patterns of bright spots and no temperature anomaly in infrared increase the puzzle about what the bright spots are. Next closest altitude will be 932 miles by early September. Stay tuned for more Earthfiles News updates.

[DarMar]

Simply put .. there is no such thing as this ball in space presented..
speaking about balls in space we got this from NASA:


and how they IMAGINE it's pathway is pretty astonishing! :D

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=dtO9sck13WI

I mean .. isn't that cute?

that gravity stuff must be awesome!

[Atlas]

Posted by DarMar (here)
that gravity stuff must be awesome!

They say: "It's gonna be cool" @3.20:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pDO4uhqehK0

[Star Tsar]

All good things...

Posted by Star Tsar (here)
CosmoQuest

Dawn Mission Press Conference

Published 7th September 2018

As the Dawn spacecraft runs out of fuel, The mission comes to an end as it will not be able to broadcast back to Earth. Dr Pamela Gay explains this livestream of the highlights of this awesome mission that has travelled to two celestial bodies.

Read all about it here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2018-210

Skip to 1:59

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HX3JuRFmeDo

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Hth3nKGKTFc