Ceres: Bright Spots tagged posts

This representation of Ceres’ Occator Crater in false colors shows differences in the surface composition. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

2 new studies from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft show insights about mysterious bright features found all over the dwarf planet’s surface. In one study, scientists identify this bright material as a kind of salt. The 2nd study suggests the detection of ammonia-rich clays, raising questions about how Ceres formed.

Ceres has more than 130 bright areas, and most of them are associated with impact craters. The bright material is consistent with a type of magnesium sulfate, hexahydrite.
Nathues and colleagues, using images from Dawn’s framing camera, suggest these salt-rich areas were left behind when water-ice sublimated in the past...

“This mountain is among the tallest features we’ve seen on Ceres to date,” said Dawn science team member Paul Schenk, a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston. “It’s unusual that it’s not associated with a crater. Why is it sitting in the middle of nowhere? We don’t know yet, but we may find out with closer observations.”

Also puzzling is the famous #Occator crater, home to Ceres’ brightest spots. A new animation simulates the experience of a close flyover of this area. The crater takes its name from the Roman agriculture deity of harrowing, a method of pulverizing and smoothing soil.

In examining the way Occator’s bright spots reflect light at different wavelengths, the Dawn science team has not found evidence that is consistent with ice...