Ceres Predictions?

[PurpleBuddha]

I am curious what some of you think the bright spots on Ceres may be. Given that Dawn will go into orbit this Friday, hopefully we will have an answer, or at least better idea soon.

I have heard several suggestions as to what these spots could be, and out of all of them, I am going with ice volcanos. Anyone agree?

I know you have probably all seen pictures of this by now, but in case you haven't this article has a decent picture showing the bright spots:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/a...sees-spots-as-it-approaches-mysterious-ceres/

 

[Christopher]

I am curious what some of you think the bright spots on Ceres may be.

The on switch.


But seriously, folks... I figure it's probably fresh ice exposed by a recent impact, or maybe freshly frozen on the surface after outgassing. But I'm kinda hoping it's the wreck of an alien ship.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

From the looks of it, it is probably the spaceship that inspired Matt Jeffries to come up with the design of the Enterprise. I don't buy the stove explanation for a second. I think he travelled to Ceres, visited the crash site of the saucer section. The secondary hull is obviously severed from it, and we can see the radiation leaking from the connection, and from that thing, hole, whatever it was, that goes down the middle on JJ's ship. I think it's where they pour the beer out.

Though judging by the size, it's probably a prototype of the USS Vengeance or something. Maybe the engineering section is attached at the centre, and the second leak is the aft nacelle?

 

[Nebusj]

The Redcoats are coming by space!

 

[Metryq]

Has there been a single instance of a confirmed cyrovolcano? I know it's a popular speculation. I'd be more inclined to believe the Old North Church theory.

Transient Lunar Phenomena are unexplained. Since Ceres is out in the middle of nowhere, I'd scratch the "outgassing" from tidal kneading idea. We know that lunar regolith "levitates" off the surface from electrostatic effects. Could it be a discharge?

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Cyrovolcanoes are probably a product of someone's imagination just like pyrovolcanoes, but if a natural and obvious thing like a cryovolcano is now controversial, I am leaving the planet. Seriously, they aren't even different from regular volcanoes.

 

[Christopher]

No, cryovolcanoes are an observed fact. The first such eruptions were noted by Voyager 2 on Neptune's moon Triton in 1989. More recently, the Cassini probe has documented extensive geyser activity on Enceladus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryovolcano

So we know they can exist, even if we haven't yet confirmed whether they exist on Ceres. And I did only suggest them as a possibility in my above post; I never pretended it was an absolute certainty. That's something we'll probably find out for sure one way or the other in the weeks ahead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryovolcano

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Has there been a single instance of a confirmed cyrovolcano?

Not on Ceres, but Enceladus's cryovolcanism is pretty well documented at this point.

Transient Lunar Phenomena are unexplained. Since Ceres is out in the middle of nowhere, I'd scratch the "outgassing" from tidal kneading idea. We know that lunar regolith "levitates" off the surface from electrostatic effects. Could it be a discharge?

Unlikely, since the bright spot in that image has been pretty constant ever since Dawn started its approach and even shows up (hazily) in the Hubble images. So it's most likely a static feature.

I agree with the others that it's probably ice exposed (or deposited?) by a recent impact.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

It's Zordplott. We here on Ceres Base have standing orders to keep all lights off whenever there's an Earth probe in the vicinity, but Zordplott thinks rules are for other Zeta Reticulans, and not for her. I'm sure you have the type on your planet, too.

Seriously, surely the smart money is on ice.

 

[Awesome Possum]

A parked UFO left its high beams on.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

McDonalds

 

[Metryq]

25:00
No mound, so it is not believed to be a cryovolcano.

[yt]http://youtu.be/sJr-pctUYdw?t=25m[/yt]

 

[JES]

I am curious what some of you think the bright spots on Ceres may be.

The on switch.


But seriously, folks... I figure it's probably fresh ice exposed by a recent impact, or maybe freshly frozen on the surface after outgassing. But I'm kinda hoping it's the wreck of an alien ship.

The bright glowing IS most certainly consistent with many UFO sightings.

If it is artificial in nature, NASA won't admit any of it. After all, the military probably doesn't want to have to deal with the political fallout of having to admit the presence of a civilization that is most certainly way more advanced than us.



So outgassing it is, and those who are skeptics will never know for certain.

 

[Christopher]

The bright glowing IS most certainly consistent with many UFO sightings.

Right, and as we all know, UFOs are the only things that glow.

And of course "bright" is relative. Ceres is nearly 3 times as far from the Sun as Earth, so the bulk of its surface would be pretty dimly lit to the naked eye. The photos we see no doubt have the brightness amplified considerably.

If it is artificial in nature, NASA won't admit any of it. After all, the military probably doesn't want to have to deal with the political fallout of having to admit the presence of a civilization that is most certainly way more advanced than us.

I really hope you're joking. You know NASA is a civilian agency, right?

So outgassing it is, and those who are skeptics will never know for certain.

It's laughable for UFO conspiracy theorists to call themselves "skeptics." Skepticism requires being skeptical about your own beliefs, not just the other guy's. When I was a kid, I swallowed all the UFO lore out there. I believed every word of it. But then, thanks to the influence of folks like Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov, I learned how to think skeptically and critically, and took a good long look at the things I'd believed, and I realized it was all complete nonsense.

 

[JES]

.

If it is artificial in nature, NASA won't admit any of it. After all, the military probably doesn't want to have to deal with the political fallout of having to admit the presence of a civilization that is most certainly way more advanced than us.

I really hope you're joking. You know NASA is a civilian agency, right?

Half joking, but NASA is answerable to the U.S. Air Force, and I have heard quite a few stories about how they do have a policy of editing out any extra-terrestrial artificial artifacts out of photos before they are released for public consumption.

 

[Christopher]

Okay, now that the inane conspiracy theories have been acknowledged, can we ignore them and get back to the actual science?

 

[Ithekro]

Depends, has anything been released yet?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Half joking, but NASA is answerable to the U.S. Air Force, and I have heard quite a few stories about how they do have a policy of editing out any extra-terrestrial artificial artifacts out of photos before they are released for public consumption.

Post proof, or retract.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

.




I really hope you're joking. You know NASA is a civilian agency, right?

Half joking, but NASA is answerable to the U.S. Air Force

lol no it isn't

and I have heard quite a few stories about how they do have a policy of editing out any extra-terrestrial artificial artifacts out of photos before they are released for public consumption.

The idea of NASA being aware of alien artifacts within the solar system is TOTALLY incompatible with the fact that our manned space program sucks and space exploration has always been very near the bottom of America's spending priorities.

It's similar to the major plot hole in the "Transformers" movies. if the real purpose of the Apollo missions was to recover technology from a crashed alien space ship, why did they stop going?

I offer you a counter-conspiracy theory: the rumors about NASA photoshopping alien artifacts out of their pictures were actually started by desperate and cynical NASA staffers in an attempt to make space exploration seem less boring than it really is.

Depends, has anything been released yet?

No, and won't be until the middle of April when Dawn comes out of Ceres' shadow.

So unless you've got a deck of cards handy, nothing left to do but sit down around the campfire, toast some marshmellows and tell stories about how NASA faked the moon landings.

 

[JES]

Half joking, but NASA is answerable to the U.S. Air Force, and I have heard quite a few stories about how they do have a policy of editing out any extra-terrestrial artificial artifacts out of photos before they are released for public consumption.

Post proof, or retract.

As you wish. Here is a series of images that made me think that perhaps there is something to these crazy conspiracy theories.

You can just barely see the artifact, which is circled in red.

http://scottcwaring.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/6fb8416c-82d2-464b-b352-1ee0115cde6e115.jpg
A close-up of the artifact. It is said to be a derelict starship. It looks artificial to me.

IDK, but they don't look tampered with.

This, for example, on the other hand does look airbrushed:

From the Clementine mission.

And you can find a bunch of other images if you type Moon Artifacts into Google.

Like myself, I'll leave it up to you to judge the chances that these might be real or not.

I myself would be just as happy is there WASN'T anything fishy going on!