{"id":19541,"date":"2015-12-09T22:17:30","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T14:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/those-mysterious-bright-spots-on-ceres-probably-salty-ice-scientists-say\/"},"modified":"2015-12-09T22:17:30","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T14:17:30","slug":"those-mysterious-bright-spots-on-ceres-probably-salty-ice-scientists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/those-mysterious-bright-spots-on-ceres-probably-salty-ice-scientists-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Those mysterious bright spots on Ceres? Probably salty ice, scientists say"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_216669\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-216669\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-216669\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-ceres-630x485.jpg\" alt=\"Ceres' Occator Crater\" width=\"630\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-ceres-630x485.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-ceres-768x591.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-ceres.jpg 1146w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-216669\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This color-coded representation of Ceres\u2019 Occator Crater shows differences in surface composition, highlight bright patches inside the crater. (Credit: NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ UCLA \/ MPS \/ DLR \/ IDA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For months, scientists have puzzled over weirdly bright spots of material shining on the asteroid Ceres, but now they say&nbsp;the spots are probably made&nbsp;of salty ice.<\/p>\n<p>That determination, based on a detailed analysis of spectral data from NASA\u2019s Dawn orbiter, comes in a paper published today by the journal Nature. Dawn\u2019s images highlight one particular patch in a 60-mile-wide impact basin known as Occator Crater, but other spots are spread across the surface of the 590-mile-wide dwarf planet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe global nature of Ceres\u2019 bright spots suggests that this world has a subsurface layer that contains briny water-ice,\u201d the study\u2019s principal author, Andreas Nathues of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, said in a NASA statement. He and his co-authors suggest that cosmic impacts dig up enough surface material to expose the shiny ice.<\/p>\n<p>The best match for the brightness of the spots is a type of hydrated magnesium sulfate known as hexahydrite, but there might be other salts in the mix.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Ceres Rotation and Occator Crater\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8er_0yY1S1o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Readings from Dawn and the European Space Agency\u2019s Herschel space telescope also point to patches of haze that regularly rise up from Occator Crater. Scientists say that suggests the salty ice&nbsp;is sublimating&nbsp;\u2013 that is, changing directly into water vapor as it warms. Such sublimation would leave bright deposits of salt behind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Dawn science team is still discussing these results and analyzing data to better understand what is happening at Occator,\u201d UCLA astronomer Chris Russell, the Dawn mission\u2019s principal investigator, said in NASA\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n<p>Another study published by Nature lays out evidence that Ceres\u2019 surface contains ammonia-rich clays. Ammonia and some of the other nitrogen compounds detected by Dawn are more commonly found in the outer solar system. That\u2019s leading scientists to suspect that Ceres has an interesting origin story: Either it formed farther out in the solar system and moved inward, or it somehow picked up materials that came in from farther out.<\/p>\n<p>Dawn has been studying Ceres from orbit since March, but its science mission isn\u2019t over yet: This week, the car-sized probe reached&nbsp;its final mapping orbit, about 240 miles above Ceres\u2019 surface. Up-close scientific observations are to begin later this month.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In other far-out news this week:<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_216679\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-216679\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-216679\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-dyson-630x427.jpg\" alt=\"Dyson sphere megastructure\" width=\"630\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-dyson-630x427.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-dyson-768x521.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-dyson.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-216679\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s representation shows a crumbling megastructure known as a Dyson sphere orbiting KIC 8462852. (Credit: Danielle Futselaar \/ SETI International)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>A&nbsp;search for laser signals turned up nothing anomalous<\/strong> coming from KIC 8462852, a star that exhibited a weird pattern of dimming several years ago. The earlier data from NASA\u2019s Kepler space telescope set off speculation that the dimming could be due to the construction of an alien megastructure around the star. But the latest study, conducted using the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama and submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, is in line with other recent searches that have come up empty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hypothesis of an alien megastructure around KIC 8462852 is rapidly crumbling apart,\u201d Douglas Vakoch, president of SETI International, said in a news release. Scientists say a storm of crumbling alien comets provides the likeliest explanation for the Kepler data.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_216680\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-216680\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-216680\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-akatsuki-630x446.jpg\" alt=\"Akatsuki\" width=\"630\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-akatsuki-630x446.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-akatsuki-768x544.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151209-akatsuki-1240x878.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-216680\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows Japan\u2019s Akatsuki spacecraft in Venusian orbit. (Credit: Akihiro Ikeshita via JAXA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Japan\u2019s Akatsuki spacecraft successfully entered orbit<\/strong> around Venus, five years after an initial try failed. The probe was launched in May 2010 and should have&nbsp;entered Venusian orbit in December of that year; however, its main engine failed during a preparatory maneuver. It took years to set up the trajectory for a second attempt on Sunday, using the spacecraft\u2019s attitude control thrusters.<\/p>\n<p>Now Akatsuki (which means \u201cDawn\u201d in Japanese) will get ready to study Venus\u2019 atmosphere from a highly elliptical orbit that ranges in altitude from 250 miles to 273,000 miles. \u201cAkatsuki is in good health,\u201d the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency reported in a news release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This color-coded representation of Ceres\u2019 Occator Crater shows differences in surface composition, highlight bright patches inside the crater. (Credit: NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ UCLA \/ MPS \/ DLR \/ IDA) For months, scientists have puzzled over weirdly bright spots of material shining on the asteroid Ceres, but now they say&nbsp;the spots are probably made&nbsp;of salty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1859,4666,2838,5133,5286,190,3754,3451],"class_list":["post-19541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-akatsuki","tag-alien-megastructure","tag-ceres","tag-dawn-probe","tag-kic-8462852","tag-nasa","tag-seti","tag-venus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19541"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}