{"id":1389,"date":"2015-06-24T17:01:32","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T22:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=1389"},"modified":"2015-06-24T17:01:32","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T22:01:32","slug":"mystery-mountains-ctd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2015\/06\/24\/mystery-mountains-ctd\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery Mountains, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader writes concerning Ceres<\/a> and some white spots:<\/p>\n

I refuse to believe the bright spots on Ceres are just reflections. A reflection would vary in intensity with rotation. I need a better explanation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since one of the white spots had been previously observed by HST<\/b><\/i><\/a>, it’s doubtful that this is a camera artifact \/ defect.\u00a0 Here is a report on the white spots.<\/p>\n

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has beamed home the best-ever photo\"\"<\/a> of the mysterious bright spots that speckle the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres.<\/p>\n

The new image resolves Ceres’ strange spots<\/a>, which are found inside a crater about 55 miles (90 kilometers) wide, into a cluster comprised of several patches, some of which were not visible in previous photos\"\"<\/a>. But it doesn’t solve the mystery of the spots’ origin and composition.<\/p>\n

“At least eight spots can be seen next to the largest bright area, which scientists think is approximately 6 miles (9 km) wide,” NASA officials wrote in a statement today (June 22). “A highly reflective material is responsible for these spots \u2014 ice and salt are leading possibilities\"\"<\/a>, but scientists are considering other options, too.”<\/p>\n

\"Ceres<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I speculated that perhaps Ceres was perhaps not rotating quickly enough, but space.com<\/a><\/b><\/i> reports otherwise<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A day on Ceres lasts a little over 9 Earth-hours, while it takes 4.6 Earth-years to travel around the sun.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At least, I’d think it would be fast enough to cause a variability in reflection.\u00a0 IO9.com<\/b><\/i> presents speculation from the principal investigator <\/a>(the link IO9 has for the principal investigator is broken, otherwise I’d use it), Chris Russell:<\/p>\n

“Ceres’ bright spot can now be seen to have a companion of lesser brightness, but apparently in the same basin. 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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The comment section also has some semi-viable speculation.<\/p>\n

Volcanos require a magma layer, <\/b><\/i>but several moons have known volcanic activity – usually caused by the gravitational proximity of the primary – Ceres has no primary.<\/p>\n

I briefly speculated that it might be chemical, but given the HST observations are more than a decade old, you’d think the material involved in the reaction would be exhausted, unless lower temperatures slowed down the reaction – but then would it be visible?\u00a0 But my chemical knowledge is miniscule.<\/p>\n

Finally, the IO9 <\/b><\/i>story also tells us what makes a scientist a scientist:<\/p>\n

I admit it: I’m totally jazzed that we’ve got such a blatant mystery staring right at us, daring us to figure it out with ever more obvious clues!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader writes concerning Ceres and some white spots: I refuse to believe the bright spots on Ceres are just reflections. A reflection would vary in intensity with rotation. I need a better explanation. Since one of the white spots had been previously observed by HST, it’s doubtful that this \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1392,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}