NASA Dawn Spacecraft Arrives at Dwarf Planet After 7 Years

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Ceres is about to get a long awaited visitor from Planet Earth. After a seven-plus year journey on gossamer wings (actually solar panels), NASA’s Spaceship Dawn arrived early Friday morning to begin unraveling the dwarf planet’s secrets, including the newly discovered bright spots emanating from the surface.

Among the most unexpected sights are the two astonishingly bright spots nestled in a crater on Ceres's surface. Photographed by Dawn's camera Feb. 19, the dots have the experts buzzing with speculation. Maybe a direct hit from an asteroid -- a space rock – excavated some buried ice. Maybe the bright spots are a sheen of minerals deposited by gushing geysers.
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Nothing to see here.

The bright spots are just reflections from ice that formed when the atmosphere leaked out of the alien base due to a seal that failed after several thousand years.
 
If we somehow find a way to link this to a climate change topic, this thread will go on for days!
 
Grahamkracka said:
If we somehow find a way to link this to a climate change topic, this thread will go on for days!
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Something something socialist agenda something...

Also getting detailed info about Ceres is pretty damn rad.
 
westrock2000 said:
Just 1 comment? Wow tough crowd.
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Wasn't really much to say. We had a post a few days ago about the pending arrival and the initial bright spot discovery. Really until more info pops up there isn't much to discuss.
We knew when it was gonna arrive.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Wasn't really much to say. We had a post a few days ago about the pending arrival and the initial bright spot discovery. Really until more info pops up there isn't much to discuss.
We knew when it was gonna arrive.
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Yeah this.

If they were to say "look at everything we found on the first day we got here!" then a few more comments might pop up.

As it stands, I think it's exciting that we're there. However the underlying question is "now what?"
 
The article made it sound like we'll have to wait until the end of April to see any photos or get any additional information from the probe. Bummer.
 
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