Open Side Menu Go to the Top
Register
Ceres Ceres

02-22-2015 , 02:15 AM
Is there life on Ceres?

Ceres Quote
02-25-2015 , 01:29 PM
46,000km, February 19



Just so you know.
Ceres Quote
02-25-2015 , 01:52 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by plaaynde
46,000km, February 19



Just so you know.
Left side photo. Very large crater, to the bottom off center. See the five very well spaced craters (all about the same size) inside the very large one? Yes you do. They are spaced exactly like a five on a die. Coincidence? Hardly.

White 'spots' appear to be inside craters. Look closely. Great protected location for underground bunkers.

As more information comes in this will coalesce into something so mind-boggling and earth-shattering that the Zombie Apocalypse will seem like a walk in the park. Just a fair warning.
Ceres Quote
02-25-2015 , 02:45 PM
How does a great civilization make contact with one that they explored millions of years ago when it was in its prehistory as species? But by of course creating bunkers and storing its Von Neumann machines in one of the smallest planets of the solar system (that happens to have the exact perfect resources without looking spectacular from far) knowing full well that by the time the species is able to get there, they are mature enough for what follows next...

Too bad that this is how we will do it for others since we are the first ones in our local galactic meganeighbourhood (and probably will run out of patience not developing the damn thing for the next 1 mil to 1 bil years! So it will end up not happening at all unless something goes wrong, terribly wrong, leaving the original Von Neumann probes to tell the story, waiting there alone hidden for millions of years, so that the next one will know what not to do in the next critical level of its technological civilization's development!)

Last edited by masque de Z; 02-25-2015 at 02:52 PM.
Ceres Quote
02-25-2015 , 05:39 PM
Also the thing about life is that over hundreds of millions of years to billions, that the expected age of it is in a planet, it probably manages to alter the planet in a way that makes the surface of the planet friendly to life due to constant evolution and redevelopment of conditions and creation of local equilibrium against even the original physics of the system. This is why its so hard to imagine life in the solar system in what we have seen so far and i bet against it 99% sure, even if you give me the best conditions in Europa or Enceladus etc i will remain unconvinced that life cannot gradually alter the planet and make it to the surface and survive there by changing the environment over time and adapting even to extreme conditions that gradually give it so hard properties that it can dominate what was previously unfriendly and flourish there creating new avenues of opportunity through new mechanisms that gradually become available.

Life is a very strong force that alters the environment to introduce further possibilities for complexity. It is however probably exceptionally hard to start and attain the complexity necessary for the game to become unavoidable.
Ceres Quote
02-25-2015 , 05:55 PM
Quote:
Life is a very strong force that alters the environment to introduce further possibilities for complexity.
So, no worries about climate change?
Ceres Quote
02-25-2015 , 06:00 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve350
So, no worries about climate change?
None for life in general (it will adapt to it all sacrificing as much as needed, even 99% of it to open new doors), plenty for human idiots though that will feel the stress to move to scientific society very soon.

2015 and the world is fighting Islamic backwards marching bs, overpopulation, ignorance of the masses, the 1% has over 50% of the wealth and does little with it, Communism is still trying to survive without getting it that its barbaric system, Capitalism is even more corrupt, in elaborate ways, inept in your face and unable to function in saturated systems, convinced its the endgame to paradise, countries are held hostage to progress by stupid notions of dept and money, unemployment, misery, divided politicians that are clueless, etc. The good news is that life takes a few million years to correct errors and mankind will take only a few centuries to decades typically. Things are looking up moreover the madness.

Last edited by masque de Z; 02-25-2015 at 06:09 PM.
Ceres Quote
02-25-2015 , 11:16 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve350
So, no worries about climate change?
None. In fact I was just thinking of making a post on this in SMP. So as not to derail this wonderful thread on Ceres I will do so now.

Let's stay reasonably on topic of this thread. Thanks.
Ceres Quote
02-26-2015 , 12:46 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeno
None. In fact I was just thinking of making a post on this in SMP. So as not to derail this wonderful thread on Ceres I will do so now.

Let's stay reasonably on topic of this thread. Thanks.
Yes, let's stay focused on the white spot and a god possibly playing dice with Ceres.

There are expansions, even a bit crazy ones, and pure derails. Nice job, Zeno.
Ceres Quote
02-26-2015 , 01:55 PM
Should Ceres and Pluto be planets?

http://phys.org/news/2015-02-nasa-mi...uto-ceres.html
Ceres Quote
03-03-2015 , 11:50 AM
Mysterious white spots spotted

Ceres Quote
03-03-2015 , 12:26 PM
The resolution will greatly improved soon and more detail become known. Icy material is a reasonable hypothesis perhaps generated by some sort of eruptive activity (volcano). I think this has been purposed before.

It could also be a beacon to signal the arise of a Zombie Army of Nazis on Earth to take over the world. But such delightful fantasies rarely come to fruition.

Last edited by Zeno; 03-03-2015 at 05:27 PM. Reason: Typo
Ceres Quote
03-03-2015 , 02:12 PM
What if it is the wreckage of a vessel .....
Ceres Quote
03-03-2015 , 03:15 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by LASJayhawk
What if it is the wreckage of a vessel .....
Maybe that of James Dean?
Ceres Quote
03-03-2015 , 04:29 PM
The future of Ceres or at least Vesta or a smaller asteroid that can be gradually accelerated in its rotation.

Ceres Quote
03-03-2015 , 09:38 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by LASJayhawk
What if it is the wreckage of a vessel .....

intergalactic drunk drivers?

I got my fingers crossed that we find a wrecked vessel amongst a bunch of smashed bottles of Andromeda Ale...

that or it has human DNA on it.
Ceres Quote
03-04-2015 , 11:44 AM
8 possible explanations for those bright spots on dwarf planet Ceres

It's a real-life mystery cliffhanger. We've come up with a list of possible reasons a large crater on the biggest object in the asteroid belt looks lit up like a Christmas tree.


http://www.cnet.com/news/8-possible-...tag=YHF65cbda0


Article from above link posted below:



We could be approaching the cliffhanger ending of the first installment of a great sci-fi trilogy in which we discover something mysterious on a nearby dwarf planet. We have some clues as to what it might be, but no one knows for sure, except that it could be something big. Then the screen fades to black and we have to wait for the next chapter to learn the secret.

But this isn't science fiction, it's a pair of real, inexplicable bright spots seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on its approach to Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. This Friday, Dawn will enter into orbit around Ceres for a mission surveying its surface and investigating the dwarf planet, which is believed to harbor a large frozen ocean under its rocky shell, not to mention whatever appears to be reflecting the sun's rays with an intensity that Dawn's deputy principal investigator, Carol Raymond, described this week as "off the charts."

And that's the cliffhanger ending to this first installment of the story. Now the waiting begins, as Dawn spends the next several weeks making its way down to its "science orbit," where the real investigation starts. The next chapter may not really begin until the end of April, when that data begins to make its way back to Earth.


In the meantime, we can speculate about the most likely explanations for those strange bright spots, which Raymond became visibly excited about when she mentioned them during NASA's Dawn press conference on Monday.


"The team is really, really excited about this feature because it is unique in the solar system," she said. "The mystery will be solved, but it's one that's really got us on the edge of our seats."

OK, now the suspense is too much. What are those mysterious spots? Let's review the possibilities, starting with the boring and building up to the awesome/crazy.

1. A salt flat. It's not exciting, but one of the possibilities mentioned by NASA and others is that those bright spots are simply the reflection of large mineral deposits on the surface of Ceres left by some sort of impact, or from earlier days when it may have been covered by water. In other words, we might not be seeing anything more interesting than a big pile of salt or talc.

2. Shiny metals. NASA's Raymond says the brightness of the spots is consistent with a highly reflective material. On Earth, polished silver and aluminum are among the most reflective surfaces you can find, which is why they're used in large telescopes. While it's not clear if anyone would be available on Ceres to be doing the polishing, there's reason to believe both metals could exist there. Plenty of precious metals have been found in meteorites, and aluminum is actually the most abundant element in the Earth's crust. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to imagine that nearby rocky dwarf planets also harbor some as well.

Also, how do we really know that all our aluminum cans are really recycled? Who's to say they aren't being launched toward the asteroid belt?

3. Exposed ice. Ice can be another highly reflective material, and scientists think Ceres has plenty of the stuff below its surface. So what if an asteroid or comet collided with Ceres, puncturing a hole in that rocky shell and exposing the icy layer below to the sun?

4. Water vapor. Perhaps there are geologic processes happening on Ceres that caused some of its ice core to melt and then get shot out into space via a geyser of sorts. In 2014, the European Herschel telescope detected plumes of water vapor emanating from Ceres, and guess what? One of the plumes was located in the same area as the bright spots we're seeing now. Even if the spots aren't actually plumes, they could be involved in the explanation.


5. Ice volcanoes. This explanation kicks off the second, more out-there half of our list. Cryovolcanoes, or volcanoes that spew water or ice rather than lava, are believed to exist in the colder reaches of the solar system, and it would make sense to see them on Ceres given what's suspected about its water and ice content. However, the observations of the area around the bright spot give no indication that there are raised sections consistent with a volcano or piles of whatever type of debris it might fling about.

6. Aliens' solar concentrators. In a 2008 TED talk, physicist and futurist Freeman Dyson suggested that the dwarf planets of the outer solar system, near Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, would be a good place to look for life. Dyson thought that although finding it might be unlikely, it might not be that hard to search if we simply looked for the reflection of the mirrors and lenses that any life forms would surely need to concentrate sunlight to survive on places like Europa and beyond. It sounds far out, but could it be that we've just found some ancient, abandoned solar concentrators even closer to home than Dyson imagined?

7. Genetically engineered colonists from another civilization. In the same talk, Dyson also suggested that if we don't find life forms hanging out in the cold reaches of the outer solar system, we should genetically engineer our own life forms to go check it out. Obviously, we haven't reached that point yet, and we tend to favor sending robots rather than clones of ourselves with frost and radiation resistance, but what if another distant civilization beat us to the punch and has sent mutant, genetically enhanced images of themselves to start poking around in our asteroid belt?

8. It's a spacecraft. Finally, as many of you devoted CNET readers have suggested, the bright spots on Ceres seem to resemble headlights.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



Would be great if it really was the wreckage of an alien spacecraft. More than likely the explanation will turn out to be more prosaic than otherwise.
Ceres Quote
03-04-2015 , 12:09 PM
you think?
Ceres Quote
03-04-2015 , 12:14 PM
I still think they don't exist. Nasa subgroup only wanting more publicity and money.

Think it's selection and confirmation bias.

Honestly: **** them.

Remember this?


Looks the white spots are at different places each time.

Last edited by plaaynde; 03-04-2015 at 12:21 PM.
Ceres Quote
03-05-2015 , 08:41 AM
My vote is hunk of metal
Ceres Quote
03-05-2015 , 09:35 AM


Ceres Quote
03-05-2015 , 11:08 AM
My vote is ice.
Ceres Quote
03-05-2015 , 07:01 PM
We all know what the white stuff is made of
Ceres Quote
03-05-2015 , 08:01 PM
Cocaine. Heaps of it. Left by the Nazis to use when they emerge from their underground bunkers.
Ceres Quote
03-05-2015 , 08:29 PM
What if i told you that it cant be cocaine. Street value of cocaine in about $25000 per kgr according to the so faithful to the truth internet. Now the white in question represents 1.5mm in diameter out of 7cm image of Ceres that is 900 km in reality. So the white disk is something like 19km diameter disk. Thats like 300 km^2 of cocaine! Even at only 1mm in depth (noway much more) that represents 300000 m^3 of cocaine or something like >0.3 bil kgr at least or 7.5 tril $. Thats nowhere near the total amount of this drug ever produced in all of human history. It would correspond to 6 kgr for each WW2 era German citizen! (or 200 gr per human of that era's population)

Now lets publish a joint paper in the international journal of pharmaceutical astrophysics excluding Nazi cocaine as possible cause of the white regions of Ceres...and add that to our illustrious scientific career...(it would probably still beat in value many theoretical physics papers i have ever forced myself to read...)


Oh and its not the other white stuff either...But that is another calculation for another journal, the international journal of human reproductive astrophysics...
Ceres Quote

      
m