Strange lights on dwarf planet Ceres have scientists perplexed

Since Dawn is just emerging from the dark side of Ceres, the first images from the April 10 imaging opportunity will be just a thin crescent (18% lit face). Even the April 14 imaging opportunity will only be of a 25% lit crescent.

However, even though not much of Ceres will be visible at first, the low sun angle near the terminator line will probably yield some dramatic images of the craters.

i'm afraid i take it as a given that, were anything non-explainable with our current knowledge to be discovered, it will be covered up. ignorance is bliss.

originally posted by: RoScoLaz4
i'm afraid i take it as a given that, were anything non-explainable with our current knowledge to be discovered, it will be covered up. ignorance is bliss.

I pray your wrong...
Second line.

originally posted by: RoScoLaz4
i'm afraid i take it as a given that, were anything non-explainable with our current knowledge to be discovered, it will be covered up. ignorance is bliss.

Seems like a strange waste of money and effort to launch a probe for the sole purpose of publicly seeking knowledge to suppress.

Here's some new data suggesting subtle differences in different lights.... more imaging data soon to come.
www.nature.com...

originally posted by: RoScoLaz4
i'm afraid i take it as a given that, were anything non-explainable with our current knowledge to be discovered, it will be covered up. ignorance is bliss.

Yeah , I'm sure if they were to find a Mystery light source on a dwarf planet we'd never hear about it and they'd keep any images they had to themselves.

New images....

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

originally posted by: JimOberg
New images....

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

To my eye, the areas of anomalous albedo look flat, almost what you'd expect from an ice field reflecting sunlight.



I don't know if you know Jim but has there been any difference in polarization of light from those areas versus others on Ceres?

originally posted by: draknoir2
Seems like a strange waste of money and effort to launch a probe for the sole purpose of publicly seeking knowledge to suppress.

Yes, no scientist in his right mind would want to be known for having first discovered proof of alien life. How would they ever live that down?

They're asking us to guess now. I went for salt deposit : www.jpl.nasa.gov...

edit : looking back at the way those spots are glowing though, that's probably wrong.

originally posted by: JimOberg
New images....

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

Looking at the animation from your link the bright spots only seem to appear when it goes into sunlight so I think we can establish its nothing alien

But then again what do I know

originally posted by: ThePeaceMaker

originally posted by: JimOberg
New images....

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

Looking at the animation from your link the bright spots only seem to appear when it goes into sunlight so I think we can establish its nothing alien

But then again what do I know

It's alien in that it's not from Earth but its alien and completely natural not alien and artificial.

originally posted by: disregard
Its a city

No. It's the "start" button.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Lol ... Never mind saying Wow ... your cover is blown ... science fiction becomes science fact

Come on spill the beans ... Is ATS run by aliens from Ceres
You seem to know way too much about Ceres ...

a reply to: Baltazar84
Scientists don't have the answer to everything. UFOs (Unidentified flying objects) certainly exist.

Curiouser and curiouser..... Latest image =

a reply to: JimOberg

Thanks for that, Jim.

As I said in another thread, an enlargement of that latest image shows that what looked to be a single long bright patch on the right in previous images can now be seen to be multiple bright spots (two major ones, plus maybe some minor spots) in this latest image. Maybe the next closer image with even better resolution would show us that it is made up of more than just what we see here.

Thanks, Jim!

I'm now positive it's Planet X on a collision course with Earth. That can only mean the Sumerian Gods are returning. I called my mom to verify.

An update to ceres.

thehiddenmission.com...

Looks like a new high rez image is out online

and a fake color image

planetary.s3.amazonaws.com...

And more info.

At last week's Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, I enjoyed a large number of talks about Ceres, which Dawn is now orbiting at an altitude of merely 385 kilometers. Several sessions worth of talks considered a wealth of new data that has been acquired since the last time I attended scientific sessions on Dawn, at lower altitudes and hence more detail. All that freshly acquired data made for talks bursting with pretty pictures and data but relatively thin on interpretation and with little coordination (yet) across data sets, which makes them a bit hard to summarize briefly. Deputy principal investigator Carol Raymond summed the situation up well at the press briefing: "Clearly, we have a lot of work to do to put together a self-consistent story among all these different data sets."

www.planetary.org...