Brine Deposits Are The Source of Ceres' Bright Spots

[bananas]

Source: SpaceRef

Bright spots seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres are likely salt deposits, a paper published Dec. 9 in Nature says.

Ceres has more than 130 bright areas, and most of them are associated with impact craters. Observations from Dawn's Framing Camera suggest the occurrence of salts originating from Ceres' interior. These salts are consistent with a type called magnesium sulfate.

Andreas Nathues, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, is lead author of "Sublimation in bright spots on Ceres." Planetary Science Institute researchers Lucille Le Corre, Vishnu Reddy, Jian-Yang Li, David O'Brien and Mark Sykes are co-authors.

"We reviewed three possible analogs for the bright spots (ice, clays and salts)," said Le Corre, a PSI Research Scientist. "Salts seem to fit the bill and are the best possible explanation of what we see on the surface of Ceres."

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Read more: http://spaceref.com/ceres/brine-deposits-are-the-source-of-ceres-bright-spots.html

[Thor_MN]

1. Ceres is doing bath salts...

My God, it's full of .... Epsom Salt.

[bemildred]

2. Must be very relaxing. nt

[Peace Patriot]

3. "are" or "seem to fit the bill"?

The title says the Ceres lights definitely "are" brine (salt & ice). The scientists in the article say "seem to fit the bill," "best possible explanation," "this gives us confidence that."

Very sloppy title-writing.