Dawn is at its closest to Ceres and yet the bright spots seem to appear smaller. Scientists are still at the dark about the bright spots as they change at every attempt to get a clearer picture of them. This is stellar parallax at work. The apparent shift in size has something to do with the shifting position between Dawn and Ceres at certain times.
The asteroid belt sensation is giving NASA a run for its money. The final outcome might be a world shaking evente or everyone may just be agonizing on something over nothing.
Dawn has been orbiting Ceres and during its closest sortie expectations ran high that at last the mystery will be finally resolved. Of course we know that that the May 16 pictures have shown that the bright spots were not single entities but rather they were composed of several other bright spots which made things murkier for the NASA scientists. Dawn will be ascending at a higher orbit before it will return for its closest attempt to orbit the planet and hope that everything be put to final rest at last.
The best guess right now circulating among scientists is that the bright spots are frozen ice reflecting the sun rays and nothing more. Be it that way, any result that will put the mystery to rest may just be as interesting as any. At least the controversy will have found a solution.
Making sure they won’t miss anything, or at least keep the public on it, NASA is trying to get the public involved by asking suggestions on their opinion regarding the Ceres’ mystery. With all its sophisticated camera array, it seems nature has beaten man’s best technology and all the images no matter how clear and crisp they are, are useless at this point in time. Frozen lake is the number choice and exposed underground surface due to recent meteor impact is another.
The bright spots aren’t affected by the time of day, whether it’s sunrise or sunset.
To this end, I would just want to say that there are so many forces at work in the universe, such as the stellar parallax that are able to keep us in the dark. The best solution in any case is to do what Armstrong and Aldrin did. They went right to the very heart of the moon and once and for all had disproved the “fact” that there’s a “Man in the Moon.” |
