HONG KONG: NASA’s Dawn mission has sent some high resolution and very interesting images of Ceres. The astronomers have tried to figure out the reason behind strange white spots on Ceres.
A new report suggests that the strange white spots observed on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres are without any doubt reflecting sunlight. The research paper could not offer any reason behind these spots and why they are in particular region and not all over.
The Dawn spacecraft sent some new images; the spacecraft started orbiting Ceres on March 6. These images were released on May 15. Dawn scientists have become sure that reflected sunlight is the reason behind the white spots after they gathered data from these images. Considering this idea, they have declined the possibilities of other reasons for the origin of these spots.
NASA has requested the public to give their opinions on the matter; it has asked them to guess the reason behind the spots. It has come up with many possible reasons such as geysers, volcanoes, rocks, ice, salt deposits, or ‘other’. And 37% of people who were part of NASA’s poll said that there could be some ‘other’ reason behind these spots. Nearly 30% of people said ice is the cause and 10% voters said volcanoes are the reason; 9% opted for geysers, followed by salt deposits with 8% and rock with 6%.
According to Christopher Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission, scientists have concluded that the extreme brightness of these spots is a result of the reflection of sunlight by highly reflective material on the surface; this surface could be ice.
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