Ceres' Mystery Bright Dots May Have Volcanic Origin

astroengine writes As NASA's Dawn mission slowly spirals in on its dwarf planet target, Ceres' alien landscape is becoming sharper by the day. And, at a distance of only 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers), the robotic spacecraft has revealed multiple bright patches on the surface, but one of the brightest spots has revealed a dimmer bright patch right next door. "Ceres' bright spot can now be seen to have a companion of lesser brightness, but apparently in the same basin," said Chris Russell, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and principal investigator for the Dawn mission. "This may be pointing to a volcano-like origin of the spots, but we will have to wait for better resolution before we can make such geologic interpretations."

Comments

Premature Eguessulation

[Tablizer]

Shouldn't we wait until the probe actually arrives and gets details before speculating?

There are bright spots on Ganymede (Jupiter moon) that are probably from meteors smashing into its icy surface.

Even our moon has Tycho crater which is surrounded with bright dust due to the recency of the impact. (Radiation tends to darken soil and rocks over time.) Volcano claims are premature.

Birkeland Currents Frequently Come in Pairs

[paradigmsareconstruc]

Perhaps it is the correct time to remind people that in the plasma laboratory, current-carrying filaments tend to exhibit both long-range attraction and short-range repulsion. Setting the scientific framework's needs aside for a moment, that would seem to point more logically to an electrical inference. Note that we see a similar dipolar structure at the poles of Venus as well.

The key test will be to observe whether or not they rotate around one another.

If they do, then it's time for Slashdot to end its ban on the electric discharge machining inference.

Concerning a hypothesis about light spots on Ceres

[Geoffrey.landis]

Dimpled spinning ball

ice in bottoms of craters

glints bright in sunlight.