Since the NASA Dawn spacecraft has entered the orbit of the dwarf planet Ceres, the whole world is discussing the nature of the origin of these mysterious white spots. Now, in order to further involve the public in the mission, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has created a survey. His task is to find out what we think about the nature of this phenomenon.
"Can you guess what caused these unusual bright spots on the surface of Ceres? On March 6, the NASA spacecraft Dawn entered the orbit of the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: Ceres. Before the spacecraft reached the dwarf planet, the images showed mysterious bright spots that fascinated scientists and observers. The moment Dawn comes close to Ceres over the next months, we can only guess about the nature of their origin, "the mission website Russ a. The mystery surrounding these spots is confusing. Even NASA admits that at the moment they are far from understanding what they are caused by.
At the first approach to Ceres, Dawn recorded two bright spots. Initially, planetary scientists suggested that these were cryo-volcanism formations. But there are other theories, in particular, that these spots are minerals or salt deposits from which light is reflected.
But now the Jet Propulsion Laboratory wants to know what you think about the nature of the bright spots.
Go to the survey: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/dawn/world_ceres/
