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Post by Joanna on Feb 27, 2015 22:50:26 GMT -5
Mysterious Lights on Planet CeresNASA scientists are puzzled by a new image taken by its Dawn spacecraft that captured two bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres. The images of Ceres, located between Mars and Jupiter, show what appear to be tiny bright areas in a circular depression. NASA scientists speculate the spots, captured February 19 from a distance of almost 29,000 miles, are of some sort of volcanic origin, but aren't sure.
"The brightest spot continues to be too small to resolve with our camera, but despite its size it is brighter than anything else on Ceres. 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, Gottingen, Germany.
NASA said the Dawn spacecraft will enter Ceres' orbit March 6 and capture even sharper images of the mysterious spots and the 590-mile-wide planet.Source: Weather.com, February 27, 2015.
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Post by Sam on Feb 28, 2015 2:30:58 GMT -5
This is interesting. I hope that the spacecraft can get close enough to figure out what's making the light.
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