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Friday, July 3, 2015

Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 46

Fig. 1 Grooves around Vesta's Equator
Regular readers are aware of a hypothesis called the Exploded Planet Hypothesis (e.g. Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 40) which I found out about in the scientific paper: The Challenge of the Exploded Planet Hypothesis, Cambridge Journals Online, International Journal of Astrobiology / Volume 6 / Issue 03 / July 2007, pp 185-197.

It is a legitimate hypothesis or theory that I have written about over the years (e.g. Weekend Rebel Science Excursion, 7, 11; Exploded Planet Hypothesis, 2; Are Some or All Comets Pieces of an Exploded Planet?).

The current cosmological hypothesis or theory of planetary and stellar evolution is discussed in the context of exploding stars, which also impact planets (On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 5).

We discussed the issue when the Dawn Spacecraft (NASA Dawn Mission) was at the asteroid Vesta (Fig. 1), before it moved on to its current location at the asteroid Ceres .(Dawn Mission Nears Ceres Orbit Maneuvers).

The phases of a planet exploding is illustrated in Fig. 2 - Fig. 5.

Fig. 2
Imagine a planet with lots of water with a continent at one of its poles, a continent with a miles-thick ice sheet (Fig. 2).
Fig. 3

Fig. 4
Cosmic forces interacting with internal forces, weaken the planet (Fig. 3).
Fig. 5

Eventually the planet breaks up.

The ice covered continent is ejected into space as huge chunks of crustal debris mixed with the water and miles-thick ice chunks (Fig. 4).

As space, time, and gravity work on the chunks, some join to form odd shaped space junk, maintaining an ungainly shape for a span of time.

Let's call one of them "Proto-Ceres," which will eventually become the asteroid Ceres (Fig. 5).

Other chunks from parts of the planet without as much ice or water, but with large layers of the planet's surface strata laid down by water and wind over millennia, eventually form a less perfect spherical form, such as the asteroid Vesta (Fig. 1).

If the once-planetary fragments which have now become an asteroid we call Proto-Ceres, is large enough, it will eventually morph into a sphere:
"Planets are round because their gravitational field acts as though it originates from the center of the body and pulls everything toward it. With its large body and internal heating from radioactive elements, a planet behaves like a fluid, and over long periods of time succumbs to the gravitational pull from its center of gravity. The only way to get all the mass as close to planet's center of gravity as possible is to form a sphere. The technical name for this process is 'isostatic adjustment'."
(Why are planets round?). Remember that some of the debris is sharp-edged granite or granite-like boulders miles wide.
Fig. 6

Those came from sections of the planet's rock layers of crust and were ejected along with the great ice sheets and other matter.

As the Proto-Ceres slowly, over many years, morphed into the asteroid Ceres (Fig. 6) (over time the ice, dirt, sand, rocks, and water were relocated by the forces of gravity).

The giant chunk of granite or granite-like rock still
Fig. 7 Pyramid
emerges from the surface of the asteroid Ceres, appearing as a pyramid shaped protrusion which is being called a mysterious mountain (Fig. 7).

There are other mysteries such as the bright spots (Fig. 6) which are still being studied.

When the software problems are rectified, and the Dawn Spacecraft moves into the lower orbit of about 250 miles above the surface, more will be known and discovered.

UPDATE: Is this (Fig. 8) a photo of the bright spots on Ceres when the Dawn Spacecraft was on the dark side of Ceres, i.e. when the other side was facing the Sun?

Fig. 8 NASA Photo Journal (click to enlarge)
The information pertaining to the photo does not specifically say:
"This image of dwarf planet Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 15, 2015, shows a cluster of mysterious spots that are clearly brighter than their surroundings. Dawn took this image at an altitude of 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers). The resolution is 1,400 feet (410 meters) per pixel."
(Dawn Survey Orbit Image 16). The reason I ask is because in the first post about the Ceres approach, I opined that:
Thus, the light generation seems to not be a reflection, but rather light generated from two sources inside the crater.

However, some of the other bright spots don't seem to glow in the dark, so we will have to wait a few days for Dawn to enter orbit (Friday).

Then Dawn can take a look at the dark side of Ceres to see if any of them glow all the way across the dark side, or instead fade out.

If they fade out slowly the source could be sunlight generated phosphorescence that fades out while on the dark side, to be regenerated on the sun facing side --but if they immediately go out and stay out on the dark side, they could be only some type of reflection from a shiny surface at the floor of the crater (such as a flat surface of frozen ice or other reflective material).

But if they glow or shine all the way across the dark side, then the light is generated by a source in the crater rather than being merely a reflection of sunlight.
(Dawn Mission Nears Ceres Orbit Maneuvers). The photo is darker than usual so that is why I wondered about it.

It is a game changer if the spots are light generators rather than light reflectors, but less of a game changer if they are phosphorescent or have persistent luminescence.

14 comments:

  1. The same race of aliens that built the pyramids built the one on Ceres too (you know, 'cause it's a pyramid), and, like Atlantis (only exploding instead of sinking) their planet was destroyed and this little chunk is PROOF, i tell ya! (tin-foil hat snark)

    i like your explanation better, Dredd. Thanks for this post.

    Yeah Randy - good link, let's touch base in 10 days on this and maybe we'll see a UFO repair facility or parking lot or something (chuckling) - if it even gets there in one piece (with all the objects that could potentially knock it off course, damage or destroy it, as the article explains). i appreciate that Stern still firmly believes Pluto is a planet (i never liked the downgrade).

    Tom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "i like your explanation better, Dredd"

      I have to say that the paper mentioned in the first long sentence of this post gave me the foundation of the hypothesis.

      The predictions in his paper have plenty of verifications ... i.e. he predicted what we would find when we visited comets and asteroids.

      His predictions went against the grain of the dogma of astronomy at that time.

      But his hypothesis is remarkably logical IMO.

      It takes observation of many asteroids and moons to gather the complete picture.

      Delete
  2. forgot to post this, sorry:

    Four mysterious spots detected on Pluto

    http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/07/03/4266900.htm

    [begins with]

    Scientists are at a loss to explain the intriguing spots which are remarkably consistent in both their even spacing along the dwarf planet's equator, and their shape and size.

    Each spot appears to be circular and about 480 kilometres in diameter.

    "It's a real puzzle-we don't know what the spots are, and we can't wait to find out," says New Horizons principal investigator Dr Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado.

    "Also puzzling is the longstanding and dramatic difference in the colours and appearance of Pluto compared to its darker and greyer moon, Charon." [read it all]

    Tom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good link.

      Wow, those spots do not appear normal helter skelter !

      Delete
    2. There were similar spots on Jupiter for awhile, after the comet crashed into it (Wikimedia).

      Only about a week until better close ups are available.

      Delete
  3. uh-oh:

    Pluto Probe Suffers Glitch 10 Days Before Epic Flyby

    A glitch caused NASA's New Horizons spacecraft to go dark for more than an hour Saturday (July 4), just 10 days before its historic flyby of Pluto.







    Related Stories


    1. Pluto Probe Spies Weird 'Dark Pole' on Big Moon Charon (Photos) SPACE.com
    2. Epic Pluto Flyby Occurs This Month SPACE.com
    3. Pluto Awaits: NASA Spacecraft 20 Million Miles from Epic Encounter SPACE.com
    4. Pluto and Charon Starting to Come into Focus (Photo) SPACE.com
    5. First Color Movies of Pluto Reveal Double-Planet Dance (Video) SPACE.com

    The probe's handlers lost contact with New Horizons at 1:54 p.m. EDT (1754 GMT) Saturday but were able to restore communications at 3:15 p.m. EDT (1915 GMT).

    [whew - that was close]

    Members of an "anomaly review board" are currently investigating the issue and working to get New Horizons back up to speed. Mission officials said the recovery process could take several days, since it takes about 4.5 hours for commands to get to the spacecraft, which is nearly 3 billion miles (4.8 billion kilometers) from Earth.

    "New Horizons will be temporarily unable to collect science data during that time," team members wrote. "Status updates will be issued as new information is available."

    [ah come-on!]

    Tom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did the aliens turn it off cause they don't like to be bothered? ;)

      Delete
  4. "Philae comet could be home to alien life, say scientists" (Guardian)

    ReplyDelete
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