What shines on Ceres? This will explain the spacecraft – Newsweek Poland

Scientists occur in the head, why planetoid recorded points of light. Help explain Dawn spacecraft is that yesterday entered orbit of Ceres.

A few days ago the world of amazing images circulated – Ceres, the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter , registered strange points of light. They are located in the interior of one of the craters covering the dwarf and undoubtedly strongly reflect light. Or emit. The photos were taken by the spacecraft Dawn, who was sent in 2007 by NASA to study the two largest asteroid belt objects – Vesta and Ceres is. March 6 Dawn reached its destination, which entered orbit of Ceres. Thanks probe probably send me pictures of better quality, which may explain the source of the mysterious lights.

But of course, for a week, scientists and astronomy enthusiasts occur in the head, which can shine on Ceres? Scientists are not sure, but of course give different explanations for this unusual phenomenon. Scientists first came to mind is that it’s just ice water, reflecting the sun’s rays. Ceres is in fact a celestial body which has the most ice of all the objects in the solar system. According to the researchers, almost the entire asteroid is made of ice. It has a large, rocky nucleus, over which the extremely long layer of ice, covered with a thin crust of rock and dust. It is estimated that up to 27 percent. Ceres is the total mass of water Moreover, the asteroid surface has a high carbon content and the earth there is almost black. It is possible that parts of the ice has been exposed and now strongly reflect light and contrast with a very dark environment.

Dawn spacecraft is now in orbit of Ceres. NASA scientists are waiting for the data that you send to be able to answer the question why the asteroid Ceres there are points of light.

They may also be the remains of the a collision with another celestial body, composed of crystals or reflective materials, such as salt or emitting metals likely to be present on the surface of Ceres – aluminum or silver. One of the most likely explanations are geysers of ice or water vapor, which could also reflect light and produce the effect of light. Ceres is likely to occur on geologic processes that result in this type of phenomena. Jednen of these geysers observed on the planetoid telescope Herschel in 2014, very close to the point where today there are mysterious lights.