{"id":11066,"date":"2015-07-24T01:54:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T05:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11066"},"modified":"2015-07-24T01:54:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T05:54:03","slug":"some-of-ceress-bright-spots-covered-with-haze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11066","title":{"rendered":"Some of Ceres&#8217;s bright spots covered with haze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While waiting for the <a href=\"http:\/\/dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dawn<\/a> spacecraft <a href=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11027\" target=\"_blank\">to spiral down to a closer look<\/a> at the surface of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)\" target=\"_blank\">Ceres<\/a>, the situation with\u00a0the bright spots has gotten more rather than less murky:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/mystery-haze-appears-above-ceres-s-bright-spots-1.18032\" target=\"_d\">Mystery haze appears above Ceres\u2019s bright spots: <em>Discovery bolsters idea that intriguing marks are made of ice, not salt<\/em> &#8211; Nature News &amp; Comment<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.planetary.org\/blogs\/guest-blogs\/2015\/0721-dawn-at-ceres-a-haze-in-occator-rivkin.html\" target=\"_d\">Dawn at Ceres: A haze in Occator crater? &#8211; The Planetary Society<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/multimedia\/images\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"10821\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?attachment_id=10821\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/pia19579_main-1041_crop.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"371,303\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"pia19579_main-1041_crop\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/pia19579_main-1041_crop.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10821\" src=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/pia19579_main-1041_crop.jpg\" alt=\"pia19579_main-1041_crop\" width=\"371\" height=\"303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/pia19579_main-1041_crop.jpg 371w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/pia19579_main-1041_crop-300x245.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 371px) 100vw, 371px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>From the Nature article:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Haze on Ceres would be the first ever observed directly in the asteroid belt. In 2014, researchers using the European Space Agency&#8217;s Herschel Space Observatory reported seeing water vapour spraying off Ceres, which suggested that it was geologically active<sup><a id=\"ref-link-1\" class=\"ref-link\" title=\"K\u00fcppers, M. et al. Nature 505, 525\u2013527 (2014).\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/mystery-haze-appears-above-ceres-s-bright-spots-1.18032#b1\">1<\/a><\/sup>. At least one-quarter of Ceres\u2019s mass is water, a much greater proportion than seen in most asteroids.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Bright spots pepper Ceres\u2019s surface, but the haze has so far been seen in only one location \u2014 a crater named Occator, which has a large bright area at its centre and several smaller spots nearby. Mission scientists have been trying to work out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/bright-spots-on-ceres-could-be-active-ice-1.17139\">whether the bright spots are made of ice<\/a>, evaporated salts or other minerals, or something else entirely.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Some team members had been leaning towards the salt explanation, but the discovery of haze suggests the presence of sublimating ice. \u201cAt noontime, if you look at a glancing angle, you can see what seems to be haze,\u201d Russell says. \u201cIt comes back in a regular pattern.\u201d The haze covers about half of the crater and stops at the rim.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While waiting for the Dawn spacecraft to spiral down to a closer look at the surface of Ceres, the situation with\u00a0the bright spots has gotten more rather than less murky: Mystery haze appears above Ceres\u2019s bright spots: Discovery bolsters idea that intriguing marks are made of ice, not salt &#8211; Nature News &amp; Comment Dawn &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11066\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Some of Ceres&#8217;s bright spots covered with haze<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asteroids","category-space-science","category-space-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-2Su","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11889,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11889","url_meta":{"origin":11066,"position":0},"title":"Dawn: Latest on the bright spots on Ceres","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dawn probe investigating\u00a0the asteroid and dwarf planet Ceres has moved its orbit closer to the surface and gotten better views of those famous bright areas at the bottom of some craters: New Clues to Ceres' Bright Spots and Origins Ceres reveals some of its well-kept secrets in two new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Asteroids &amp; Comets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids &amp; Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"PIA20180-16-640x350[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA20180-16-640x3501.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11332,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11332","url_meta":{"origin":11066,"position":1},"title":"Dawn probe sends new images of Ceres and its mysterious bright spots","author":"TopSpacer","date":"September 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dawn mission releases new images of the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt and of those odd bright spots: Ceres' Bright Spots Seen in Striking New Detail The brightest spots on the dwarf planet Ceres gleam with mystery in new views delivered by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. These closest-yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Asteroids &amp; Comets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids &amp; Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"pia19889[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/pia198891.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10817,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10817","url_meta":{"origin":11066,"position":2},"title":"Latest Dawn images of Ceres &#8211; Bright spots and a mountain stand out","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0Dawn\u00a0spacecraft returns new photos of the dwarf planet Ceres: Ceres Spots Continue to Mystify in Latest Dawn Images The closer we get to Ceres, the more intriguing the distant dwarf planet becomes. New images of Ceres from NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft provide more clues about its mysterious bright spots, and also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Asteroids &amp; Comets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids &amp; Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"pia19579_main-1041","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/pia19579_main-1041-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10631,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10631","url_meta":{"origin":11066,"position":3},"title":"Latest Dawn image of bright spots on Ceres surface","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0Dawn\u00a0probe is getting closer to the giant asteroid (or dwarf planet depending on your classification preference) and taking better images of those odd bright spots on the surface: [ Update: Lots more Ceres images with\u00a0Emily Lakdawalla's commentary:\u00a0Tons of fun with the latest Ceres image releases from Dawn -\u00a0The Planetary Society.]\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Asteroids &amp; Comets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids &amp; Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"pia19559-16-640x350[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/pia19559-16-640x3501.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10737,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10737","url_meta":{"origin":11066,"position":4},"title":"Dawn at Ceres: Latest photos of the &#8216;bright spots&#8217; and other areas","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest\u00a0photos of Ceres from the Dawn spacecraft: The brightest spots on dwarf planet Ceres are seen in this image taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 6, 2015.\u00a0\u00a0Full image and caption Bright Spots Shine in Newest Dawn Ceres Images New images of dwarf planet Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Asteroids &amp; Comets&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids &amp; Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"pia19568_main-1041[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/pia19568_main-10411.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12330,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12330","url_meta":{"origin":11066,"position":5},"title":"ESO: Observatory sees daily changes in bright spots on Ceres","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest report from\u00a0ESO\u00a0(European Southern Observatory): Unexpected Changes of Bright Spots on Ceres Discovered Observations made using the HARPS spectrograph at ESO\u2019s La Silla Observatory in Chile have revealed unexpected changes in the bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres. 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New observations using the HARPS spectrograph on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla in Chile have revealed unexpected daily changes on these spots, suggesting that they change under the influence of sunlight as Ceres rotates. \u00a0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/eso1609a1-1024x614.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11067,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11066\/revisions\/11067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}