Obviously, the aliens are now alerted to our presence and are changing shape as we get closer.
That’s not Ceres. It’s a space station.
I’m going for glass caused by the heat of meteor impact.
That’s Elon Musk’s new solar farm. He just kinda forgot to tell us about it.
This is definitely getting good now!
“Now uh, witness the the the firepower of this uh… fully, um, y’know, armed and heheh operational, y’know, battle station.”
Diamond.
Thus began the first of the belt wars…
Not My Moon.
Your summary says:
Ceres is a dwarf planet and the largest object in the astroid belt,
between Mars and Jupiter. Too dim to be seen with the naked eye, it is
about 487km across.
It’s just dust on the lens.
It’ll be a logo.
And some copyjerk will want us to pay for unauthorised reproductions,
Actually, the whole thing is probably just the build-up for some sci-fi movie.
Dawn mission really seems to be dragging out getting closer to Ceres to finally see what these are. Will it be a great season finale like Gravity Falls or more uncertainty like Lost or the Sopranos?
Outgassing caused by tidal forces still sounds too sexy. When it involves cool stuff in the solar system, my method of prediction runs ‘think of the most boring possible explanation, it will be even more boring than that’.
If it’s not a sensor calibration issue, or weird diffraction effect caused by, I dunno, regular ridge formations, then it could be some actually shiny material on the surface. Easily mineable ice on the surface of another world would be too handy for refueling spaceships, cryo volcanoes are, as I said, just too sexy. A short-lived and rare event which we just so happened to catch on camera? Pffff. I just think it’s gong to end up being something like a moire pattern. Sensors interacting with some specific type of misleading formation would mean it doesn’t really exist at all but it’ll probably be way more disappointing than that.
Aggregate effect of some slightly-purer-than-the-surroundings mineral? Still too cool.
Dude, you are speculating all wrong
How am I supposed to keep my astronomical expectations astronomical?
I live to be disappointed in my expected disappointment.
psst. That man is a monster.
