Ceres’ white spots might be salt not water
The uncertainty of science: The principal investigator of Dawn has indicated that the preliminary data they have gotten of Ceres’ white spots strongly suggests that they are not water but salt.
The mystery is far from completely solved, Russell cautioned. The team failed to get the quality of measurements they wanted in examining the spots, and they’ll have to try again at a closer orbit — like the next planned mapping orbit, which will take them from 2,700 miles over the surface to just 900. The photos taken at that height will also have significantly better resolution, which should further help the team determine what the spots are made of.
But based on the spectral data the team did get, Russell said, the spots “really don’t look like mounds of ice. … The bright spots are probably — like you might find in the desert on Earth — a salt plain where maybe water came out at one time and evaporated,” Russell said.
None of this is confirmed, and won’t be until they lower Dawn’s orbit to get higher resolution images. However, this must wait because they have extended Dawn’s mapping orbit for now as they review the issue that caused the safe mode incident on June 30.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The uncertainty of science: The principal investigator of Dawn has indicated that the preliminary data they have gotten of Ceres’ white spots strongly suggests that they are not water but salt.
The mystery is far from completely solved, Russell cautioned. The team failed to get the quality of measurements they wanted in examining the spots, and they’ll have to try again at a closer orbit — like the next planned mapping orbit, which will take them from 2,700 miles over the surface to just 900. The photos taken at that height will also have significantly better resolution, which should further help the team determine what the spots are made of.
But based on the spectral data the team did get, Russell said, the spots “really don’t look like mounds of ice. … The bright spots are probably — like you might find in the desert on Earth — a salt plain where maybe water came out at one time and evaporated,” Russell said.
None of this is confirmed, and won’t be until they lower Dawn’s orbit to get higher resolution images. However, this must wait because they have extended Dawn’s mapping orbit for now as they review the issue that caused the safe mode incident on June 30.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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