{"id":11889,"date":"2015-12-09T18:12:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T23:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11889"},"modified":"2015-12-09T18:12:01","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T23:12:01","slug":"dawn-latest-on-the-bright-spots-on-ceres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11889","title":{"rendered":"Dawn: Latest on the bright spots on Ceres"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dawn probe<\/a> 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:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/news\/news-detail.html?id=4785\" target=\"_d\">New Clues to Ceres&#8217; Bright Spots and Origins<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_11890\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11890\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/multimedia\/images\/image-detail.html?id=PIA20180\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11890\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"11890\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?attachment_id=11890\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA20180-16-640x3501.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"640,350\" 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=\"PIA20180-16-640&amp;#215;350[1]\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA20180-16-640x3501.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-11890\" src=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA20180-16-640x3501.jpg\" alt=\"PIA20180-16-640x350[1]\" width=\"520\" height=\"284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA20180-16-640x3501.jpg 640w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/PIA20180-16-640x3501-300x164.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11890\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>This representation of Ceres&#8217; Occator Crater in false colors shows differences in the surface composition. Image Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA \u203a <a href=\"http:\/\/dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/multimedia\/images\/image-detail.html?id=PIA20180\" target=\"_blank\">Full image and caption<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>Ceres reveals some of its well-kept secrets in two new studies in the journal Nature, thanks to data from NASA&#8217;s Dawn spacecraft. They include highly anticipated insights about mysterious bright features found all over the dwarf planet&#8217;s surface.<\/p>\n<p>In one study, scientists identify this bright material as a kind of salt. The second study suggests the detection of ammonia-rich clays, raising questions about how Ceres formed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Bright Spots<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ceres has more than 130 bright areas, and most of them are associated with impact craters. Study authors, led by Andreas Nathues at Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, G\u00f6ttingen, Germany, write that the bright material is consistent with a type of magnesium sulfate called hexahydrite. A different type of magnesium sulfate is familiar on Earth as Epsom salt.<\/p>\n<p>Nathues and colleagues, using images from Dawn&#8217;s framing camera, suggest that these salt-rich areas were left behind when water-ice sublimated in the past. Impacts from asteroids would have unearthed the mixture of ice and salt, they say.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The global nature of Ceres&#8217; bright spots suggests that this world has a subsurface layer that contains briny water-ice,&#8221; Nathues said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A New Look at Occator<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8er_0yY1S1o?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The surface of Ceres, whose average diameter is 584 miles (940 kilometers), is generally dark &#8212; similar in brightness to fresh asphalt &#8212; study authors wrote. The bright patches that pepper the surface represent a large range of brightness, with the brightest areas reflecting about 50 percent of sunlight shining on the area. But there has not been unambiguous detection of water ice on Ceres; higher-resolution data are needed to settle this question.<\/p>\n<p>The inner portion of a crater called Occator contains the brightest material on Ceres. Occator itself is 60 miles (90 kilometers) in diameter, and its central pit, covered by this bright material, measures about 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide and 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers) deep. Dark streaks, possibly fractures, traverse the pit. Remnants of a central peak, which was up to 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers) high, can also be seen.<\/p>\n<p>With its sharp rim and walls, and abundant terraces and landslide deposits, Occator appears to be among the youngest features on Ceres. Dawn mission scientists estimate its age to be about 78 million years old.<\/p>\n<p>Study authors write that some views of Occator appear to show a diffuse haze near the surface that fills the floor of the crater. This may be associated with observations of water vapor at Ceres <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/news\/news.php?feature=4020\" target=\"_blank\">by the Herschel space observatory<\/a> that were reported in 2014. The haze seems to be present in views during noon, local time, and absent at dawn and dusk, study authors write. This suggests that the phenomenon resembles the activity at the surface of a comet, with water vapor lifting tiny particles of dust and residual ice. Future data and analysis may test this hypothesis and reveal clues about the process causing this activity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Dawn science team is still discussing these results and analyzing data to better understand what is happening at Occator,&#8221; said Chris Russell, principal investigator of the Dawn mission, based at the University of California, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Importance of Ammonia<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the second Nature study, members of the Dawn science team examined the composition of Ceres and found evidence for ammonia-rich clays. They used data from the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer, a device that looks at how various wavelengths of light are reflected by the surface, allowing minerals to be identified.<\/p>\n<p>Ammonia ice by itself would evaporate on Ceres today, because the dwarf planet is too warm. However, ammonia molecules could be stable if present in combination with (i.e. chemically bonded to) other minerals.<\/p>\n<p>The presence of ammoniated compounds raises the possibility that Ceres did not originate in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, where it currently resides, but instead might have formed in the outer solar system. Another idea is that Ceres formed close to its present position, incorporating materials that drifted in from the outer solar system &#8211; near the orbit of Neptune, where nitrogen ices are thermally stable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The presence of ammonia-bearing species suggests that Ceres is composed of material accreted in an environment where ammonia and nitrogen were abundant. Consequently, we think that this material originated in the outer cold solar system,&#8221; said Maria Cristina De Sanctis, lead author of the study, based at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Rome.<\/p>\n<p>In comparing the spectrum of reflected light from Ceres to meteorites, scientists found some similarities. Specifically, they focused on the spectra, or chemical fingerprints, of carbonaceous chondrites, a type of carbon-rich meteorite thought to be relevant analogues for the dwarf planet. But these are not good matches for all wavelengths that the instrument sampled, the team found. In particular, there were distinctive absorption bands, matching mixtures containing ammoniated minerals, associated with wavelengths that can&#8217;t be observed from Earth-based telescopes.<\/p>\n<p>The scientists note another difference is that these carbonaceous chondrites have bulk water contents of 15 to 20 percent, while Ceres&#8217; content is as much as 30 percent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ceres may have retained more volatiles than these meteorites, or it could have accreted the water from volatile-rich material,&#8221; De Sanctis said.<\/p>\n<p>The study also shows that daytime surface temperatures on Ceres span from minus 136 degrees to minus 28 degrees Fahrenheit (180 to 240 Kelvin). The maximum temperatures were measured in the equatorial region. The temperatures at and near the equator are generally too high to support ice at the surface for a long time, study authors say, but data from Dawn&#8217;s next orbit will reveal more details.<\/p>\n<p>As of this week, Dawn has reached its final orbital altitude at Ceres, about 240 miles (385 kilometers) from the surface of the dwarf planet. In mid-December, Dawn will begin taking observations from this orbit, including images at a resolution of 120 feet (35 meters) per pixel, infrared, gamma ray and neutron spectra, and high-resolution gravity data.<\/p>\n<p>Dawn&#8217;s mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA. Dawn is a project of the directorate&#8217;s Discovery Program, managed by NASA&#8217;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, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.<\/p>\n<p>For a complete list of mission participants, visit:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/mission\">dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/mission<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More information about Dawn is available at the following sites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/\">dawn.jpl.nasa.gov<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/dawn\">www.nasa.gov\/dawn<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217; Bright Spots and Origins Ceres reveals some of its well-kept secrets in two new studies in the journal Nature, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11889\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dawn: Latest on the bright spots on Ceres<\/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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[75,13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asteroids","category-space-science","category-space-systems"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-35L","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10737,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10737","url_meta":{"origin":11889,"position":0},"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":15322,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=15322","url_meta":{"origin":11889,"position":1},"title":"Dawn: Bright spots hint that Ceres remains active","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"An update from the Dawn mission and the latest on the unusual \"white spots\" on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres: Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity https:\/\/youtu.be\/wL-sfEsYhpw If you could fly aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft, the surface of dwarf planet Ceres would generally look quite dark, but\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":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/PIA21913-16-640x3501.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10359,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10359","url_meta":{"origin":11889,"position":2},"title":"Dawn images show diversity in surface of Ceres","author":"TopSpacer","date":"April 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0Dawn\u00a0spacecraft continues to move towards a close orbit of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. (See recent report here on Dawn's status.) \u00a0The spacecraft has not yet begun making new images of the dwarf planet. Here is a report on analysis of the planet's surface using imaging data\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":"PIA19063_ip[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/PIA19063_ip1-1024x354.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10817,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10817","url_meta":{"origin":11889,"position":3},"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":12330,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12330","url_meta":{"origin":11889,"position":4},"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. Although Ceres appears as little more than a point of\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":"This artist\u2019s impression is based on a detailed map of the surface compiled from images taken from NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres. It shows the very bright patches of material in the crater Occator and elsewhere. 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":[]},{"id":11332,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=11332","url_meta":{"origin":11889,"position":5},"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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11889","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=11889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11891,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11889\/revisions\/11891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}