Can somebody please tell me what this is?

[ryan]

http://mashable.com/2015/02/25/strange-lights-dwarf-planet-ceres/

Guess what it is, and the date of your post will be proof that you were right before NASA figures it out. The person who gets this right could have helped NASA!

This is crazy. If I had to guess, I would say it is ice and not an ice volcano. If it were an ice volcano, I would think that there would be a noticeable trail.

 

[DBT]

Perhaps relatively fresh meteorite impacts that have exposed an underlying layer of clean white ice....being more reflective than the rest of the dusty surface coating of Ceres?

 

[bigfield]

ETA: Since it's the Natural Science forum, I should also make a serious contribution to the thread:

I'm guessing recent meteorite impacts have exposed an underlying layer of white ice that has not yet been covered over by dust.

 

[skepticalbip]

.

And here I was thinking that it was the parking lot lights at the shopping mall.

 

[tupac chopra]

My guess is NASA wont figure it out. It will be some natural phenomenon we don't yet understand or know about

 

[skepticalbip]

My guess is NASA wont figure it out. It will be some natural phenomenon we don't yet understand or know about

You mean like the blueberries on Mars that they gave a plausible explanation for but don't really know for sure?

 

[bilby]

I think it is an area of lighter material on the surface.

Remember, you heard it here first!

 

[ryan]

I think it is an area of lighter material on the surface.

Remember, you heard it here first!

I am going to go with matter or energy.

 

[none]

It's a windshield from a '57 step box Chevy

 

[gmbteach]

Okay, I have looked carefully at the picture.




And studied it at length.



Oh.. Okay - I glanced at it.



And I have decided that it must be..................................






A Dwarf Planet named Ceres!



I could be wrong, I don't know much about stuff up in space, but that is my uneducated guess.

 

[bilby]

It is the world, Ceres.

(Pun shamelessly stolen from Isaac Asimov).

 

[ryan]

Okay fine, I will be the only one to go out on a limb. It is ... [drum beat] some sort of luminescent material.

 

[repoman]

I guess that taking, processing and sending the photos must take a certain amount of energy, because the gap between photo sessions is pretty long.

ok, let's assume it is ice from an impact that is fairly new. It could be from the lower ice exposed or from a comet that had lots of ice.

I wonder what the slowest impact that could happen with Ceres and another object would be.

 

[ryan]

I guess that taking, processing and sending the photos must take a certain amount of energy, because the gap between photo sessions is pretty long.

ok, let's assume it is ice from an impact that is fairly new. It could be from the lower ice exposed or from a comet that had lots of ice.

I wonder what the slowest impact that could happen with Ceres and another object would be.

I don't know, the new picture is pretty weird, http://news.yahoo.com/mystery-spot-dwarf-planet-ceres-mysterious-partner-photos-131811521.html

 

[skepticalbip]

I guess that taking, processing and sending the photos must take a certain amount of energy, because the gap between photo sessions is pretty long.

ok, let's assume it is ice from an impact that is fairly new. It could be from the lower ice exposed or from a comet that had lots of ice.

I wonder what the slowest impact that could happen with Ceres and another object would be.

I would think that the slowest possible impact would be whatever the escape velocity of Ceres is.

ETA:
OK, I got curious and googled the escape velocity of Ceres. Google tells me it is 0.51 km/sec.

 

[repoman]

I am trying to imagine a physically possible (but maybe not possible for orbital dynamics) way for the impact to be below escape velocity.

I can't see it happening without another very nearby body sucking energy out of the impactor like a reverse gravitational slingshot.

However, as seen from a distance the impactor would be going toward the center of mass of Ceres and this mystery neighbor at least as fast the combined escape velocity at that point.

 

[none]

it's weird whatever it is or completely natural.

 

[bilby]

I am trying to imagine a physically possible (but maybe not possible for orbital dynamics) way for the impact to be below escape velocity.

I can't see it happening without another very nearby body sucking energy out of the impactor like a reverse gravitational slingshot.

However, as seen from a distance the impactor would be going toward the center of mass of Ceres and this mystery neighbor at least as fast the combined escape velocity at that point.

It could be done with retro-rockets. An irregular cometary nucleus that is rapidly out-gassing in such an orientation as to produce net acceleration away from Ceres could theoretically impact at below escape velocity.

The probability of this occurring naturally must be very small indeed though.

 

[Bomb#20]

I am trying to imagine a physically possible (but maybe not possible for orbital dynamics) way for the impact to be below escape velocity.

Piece of cake. Start with a small moon in orbit around Ceres. A big enough meteorite smacks into the front of the moon, reducing its momentum enough to make its new orbit intersect Ceres. So the (ex)moon hits with orbital velocity, which is well below escape velocity.

 

[bilby]

I am trying to imagine a physically possible (but maybe not possible for orbital dynamics) way for the impact to be below escape velocity.

Piece of cake. Start with a small moon in orbit around Ceres. A big enough meteorite smacks into the front of the moon, reducing its momentum enough to make its new orbit intersect Ceres. So the (ex)moon hits with orbital velocity, which is well below escape velocity.

Nope, that won't work, the moon will be accelerated by Ceres gravity and will impact at or above escape velocity.