Author Topic: Strange "Lights" spotted on Ceres (Read 23597 times)

Psk · « **on:** March 01, 2015, 11:23:23 PM »

Dwarf planet/asteroid Ceres is shining two bright lights at a NASA spacecraft & our scientists are unsure what they are.

Ceres, is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, officially designated as a dwarf planet.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is approaching Ceres ahead of a March 6 rendezvous. The picture was taken February 19, from a distance of just under 29,000 miles, & shows two very bright areas on the same basin on Ceres' surface.

Previous Dawn images from further away showed a single light on Ceres, which was just as mysterious. Then, the one light turned out to be two as the spacecraft got closer.

"This is truly unexpected and still a mystery to us," said Andreas Nathues, lead investigator for the framing camera team at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, in a NASA statement. "The brightest spot [of the two] continues to be too small to resolve with our camera, but despite its size it is brighter than anything else on Ceres."

We'll find out more as Dawn approaches Ceres next week and more imagery comes in during the next 16 months, according to NASA.

Psk · « **Reply #1 on:** March 05, 2015, 06:33:36 PM »

Even when the Dawn spacecraft was still pretty far away from Ceres, it was regularly taking photos every day, & NASA was releasing them within 48 hours.

I find it very odd that as soon as the lights in the crater photo was released, that suddenly there are no more photos of Ceres, even though the spacecraft has gotten a lot closer, & the photos would be much more spectacular.

I guess they need lots of time to touch-up the photos so they can say there was nothing there, & place the rest in a classified file that won't be seen for 100 years.

Anywho, I get some more, clearer pix of Ceres but no newer ones. These weren't released to the news, but only to a few research facilities & universities. I had to dig around to find them. You've seen these on the news, but not these exclusive clearer versions.

Enjoy!

Psk · « **Reply #2 on:** March 05, 2015, 06:36:36 PM »

More!

Psk · « **Reply #3 on:** June 11, 2015, 05:08:12 PM »

I have some more new pictures of Ceres, including a few closer & alternative views of the mysterious white spot. Once again, these were processed from the raw images directly by me & my own homemade software. You won't find clearer views of these same raw images anywhere unless they stolen from me.

Enjoy!