The Astronomy Thread

  • Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and give us your nominations!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
<Gold Donor>
46,414
98,706
Ceres_spots_animation_May_4_2015.gif
 

Furry

🌭🍔🇺🇦✌️SLAVA UKRAINI!✌️🇺🇦🍔🌭
<Gold Donor>
21,938
28,700
Isn't that just some metallic debris from an asteroid impact?
There's a lot of asteroid impacts on that asteroid. It should be enough to give you an idea of what a typical asteroid impact looks like.

Could it be an asteroid impact? Possibly. if it is, its a very unusual one.
 

iannis

Musty Nester
31,351
17,657
Relatively fresh impact that unearthed/deposited highly reflective metal.

I.e. lumies nuklear wessel.
 

Hekotat

FoH nuclear response team
12,249
11,901
It looked like a pool of water to me in that first shot, now I'm disappointed. Still cool, but not freak me out and cool at the same time.
 

Furry

🌭🍔🇺🇦✌️SLAVA UKRAINI!✌️🇺🇦🍔🌭
<Gold Donor>
21,938
28,700
Are there official theories?
There are lots of official theories. There are no official theories strongly indicated by proof. Basically, nasa has said a lot of things it could be, but there's no strongest contender yet.
 

Brad2770

Avatar of War Slayer
5,221
16,413
Keep in mind that Ceres only reflects 10% of the light that it receives, so the images we are looking at are over exposed.
 

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
<Gold Donor>
46,414
98,706
Probably some chunk of metal from a impact? If it was water wouldnt there be quite a bit more bright features all over?
 

Araxen

Golden Baronet of the Realm
10,459
7,852
What is crazy is they STILL don't know for sure what those bright spots are. It's probably ice but man the formation of those shapes look like alien outposts if you want to go the conspiracy theorist route. Especially the one that looks like a rectangle. It must be the Reptilians! Only the banned Lumie knows! #FREELUMIE
 

Furry

🌭🍔🇺🇦✌️SLAVA UKRAINI!✌️🇺🇦🍔🌭
<Gold Donor>
21,938
28,700
the likelyhood that its ice or debris from any sort of comet is extremely low. Even that far out, direct exposure to sunlight would be more than sufficient to burn off small debris in short order- never mind you have to explain how it landed in the first place. Basic orbital mechanics make a natural soft landing essentially impossible, and any hard landing would likely obliterate the ice instantly.

Basically, its probably a probe sent by dinosaurs. Nothing else makes sense.
 

Itzena_sl

shitlord
4,609
6
Probably some chunk of metal from a impact? If it was water wouldnt there be quite a bit more bright features all over?
Ceres has an outer layer of crap (dust, fine rocks, etc) over a water-ice ocean over a rocky core. The bright spots are possibly just where it got hit by something big enough to smash the crust and water-ice flooded up then froze.

eT1GSzC.jpg
 

Zindan

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
7,008
4,672
Well, we're just going to have to go land something on Ceres and find out for sure what that is!