Strange lights on dwarf planet Ceres have scientists perplexed

[zorgon]

Picked up a nice meteorite last night  I was looking up something and spotted it  Sometimes those google ads do help

$22.95 free shipping  6.1 grams

[RUSSO]

It seems dawn arrived the the survey orbit.

Time to keep the eyes wide open for news

Mission Status Updates
- from Chief Engineer/ Mission Director, Marc Rayman (JPL)
2015
June 3, 2015 - Dawn Arrives in Second Mapping Orbit

Dawn completed the maneuvering to reach its second mapping orbit and stopped ion-thrusting on schedule this morning. Since May 9, the spacecraft has reduced its orbital altitude from 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers) to 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers). The orbit period has correspondingly decreased from 15.2 days to 3.1 days. Dawn is scheduled to begin its new observations on June 5, as explained in the most recent Dawn Journal. First, however, the mission control team will measure the actual orbit parameters accurately and transmit them to the spacecraft.

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

[zorgon]

Yup we do.


I have started the info on Ceres here at UMLR  I am going to use UMLR for all the current real space news

Since UMLR is now linked to Livingmoon as a subdirectory though it does not show that in the url, the combined traffic on all my sites now comes to Pegasus

Here are the pages so far  I still need to add those animated gifs.

I would also like to update the old Indian and Chinese satellite missions  We stopped because they didn't yield much but I should have a current file

Here is what we have on Ceres so far

Ceres ~ Small Dwarf Planet - Asteroid Belt
http://umlr.net/03files/Ceres_Asteroid_Belt.html

Water Detected on Dwarf Planet Ceres
http://umlr.net/03files/Ceres_Water.html

'Bright Spot' on Ceres Has Dimmer Companion
http://umlr.net/03files/Ceres_Lights.html

I see I have to fix the images  sigh.....


Here is the menu page with the articles I have updates so far

http://umlr.net/menu.html

So yeah lets keep a close eye on Ceres  It has WATER and a base with the lights on

Edit to fix the first link.

[RUSSO]

Nice collage from an Italian user at NASA Blog: (click in the picture to enlarge)

Daniele Bianchino says:
March 3, 2015 at 9:59 am
Hello everyone, I am excited to new photos and for your great work; I'm very happy, and my question was read in the " Dwarft planet arrival, nasa jpl, March 2? (latest Question)  :-D
This is my final collage, very accurate, I have represent in accurate scale Ceres, Vesta, the most important asteroids visited by a space probe, 3 icy moons (Mimas, Miranda, Enceladus), Mars moons (Phobos and Deimos) and the strange asteroid Chariklo (as I have imagined).
http://mondialieni.altervista.org/Ceres_Vesta_Cerere_planet_pianeta_enceladus_mimas_Chariklo_asteroid_comet_Bianchino_Daniele_Dawn_Lutetia.jpg
I hope all like it.
Daniele, Italy

Source: http://dawnblog.jpl.nasa.gov/2015/02/25/dawn-journal-february-25/

[zorgon]

PIA19547: Ceres RC3 Animation



This animation shows a sequence of images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on May 4, 2015, from a distance of 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers), in its RC3 mapping orbit. The image resolution is 0.8 mile (1.3 kilometers) per pixel.

In this closest-yet view, the brightest spots within a crater in the northern hemisphere are revealed to be composed of many smaller spots. However, their exact nature remains unknown.

Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK, Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of acknowledgements, visit http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission.

For more information about the Dawn mission, visit http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Image Addition Date:
2015-05-11


http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19547

[zorgon]

Caught up

http://umlr.net/03files/Ceres_Lights.html

[The Seeker]

I found it interesting that DAWN uses an ion drive... going to have to check in on that some more... got anything on that, Herr Zorgon?



seeker

[rdunk]

Ceres bright spots - there are more than the several that are in this one noted crater, which appears to have six or seven bright spots. Magnified these are much easier to actually see individually. However, because of this "rotating photo" of Ceres, it is more difficult to discern the others. If you will go to a negative display screen, you will more easily see other similar areas that were likewise white that are now black in negative screen. In the negative display screen, one can see what might be smoke trails near the spots - not really seeable/noticeable in regular screen mode, until one knows it is there from seeing it in negative screen.

Thus far, I cannot find a photo log that has a complete set of just individual photos of the complete circumference of Ceres. Also, it is difficult to do anything with rotating photos!

Here s another magnified screenshot of this Ceres crater i which one can see all of the several bright white spots.

[ArMaP]

Thus far, I cannot find a photo log that has a complete set of just individual photos of the complete circumference of Ceres. Also, it is difficult to do anything with rotating photos!

It's an animated GIF, it's easy to decompose it into the 55 images used to create the animation.

[zorgon]

I found it interesting that DAWN uses an ion drive... going to have to check in on that some more... got anything on that, Herr Zorgon?

Original article
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/01archives/Ion_Drives.html


Ion Engine Deep Space 1 probe that crashed into the Comet

http://www.thelivingmoon.com/41pegasus/01archives/Ion_Propulsion02.htm

Ion Drive Dawn

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/ion_prop.asp

I have more somewhere but not sorted that section yet

[zorgon]

Thus far, I cannot find a photo log that has a complete set of just individual photos of the complete circumference of Ceres. Also, it is difficult to do anything with rotating photos!

As Armap says a GIF is a collection of images put into an animation and is very easy to take apart

I would try here though 

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/latest-images_archive_1.html#.VXJTn9Ic6So

[Sgt.Rocknroll]

I'll wait for the USGS maps

[ArMaP]

If you want a zip file with all the images from the GIF converted to PNG, click here.

[rdunk]

If you want a zip file with all the images from the GIF converted to PNG, click here.

Thanks ArMaP!! That is the photos I was looking for. This far, not a lot to see on Ceres but those bright spots of this OP are certainly there.

A point of interest maybe - these bright spots are, besides being very bright, are likely huge to our frame of reference! The diameter of Ceres is 598 miles, and just the fact these bright spots are seeable at this distance and resolution would promote their bigness as fact.

Here is a bit different look at the same photos -created from images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft during its initial approach to the dwarf planet, prior to being captured into orbit in March 2015. In this color shot, we still can see the bright area, just above center in the photo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PIA19063-Ceres-DwarfPlanet-DawnMission-March2015.jpg

The map is an enhanced color view that offers an expanded range of the colors visible to human eyes. Scientists use this technique in order to highlight subtle color differences across Ceres. This can provide valuable insights into the physical properties and composition of materials on the surface. For example, scientists have not established clear connections between impact craters and the different colors visible here, but they are investigating this possibility.

Images taken using blue (440 nanometers), green (550 nanometers) and infrared (920 nanometers) spectral filters were combined to create the map. The filters were assigned to color channels in reverse order, compared to natural color; in other words, the short-wavelength blue images were assigned to the red color channel and the long-wavelength infrared images are assigned to the blue color channel.

[ArMaP]

Here is a bit different look at the same photos -created from images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft during its initial approach to the dwarf planet, prior to being captured into orbit in March 2015. In this color shot, we still can see the bright area, just above center in the photo.

Yes, I saw that image some time ago.

The map is an enhanced color view that offers an expanded range of the colors visible to human eyes. Scientists use this technique in order to highlight subtle color differences across Ceres. This can provide valuable insights into the physical properties and composition of materials on the surface. For example, scientists have not established clear connections between impact craters and the different colors visible here, but they are investigating this possibility.

Images taken using blue (440 nanometers), green (550 nanometers) and infrared (920 nanometers) spectral filters were combined to create the map. The filters were assigned to color channels in reverse order, compared to natural color; in other words, the short-wavelength blue images were assigned to the red color channel and the long-wavelength infrared images are assigned to the blue color channel.

Interesting they inverted the colours. This is what that image looks like when using the red channel for the blue image and vice-versa.