Re:Ceres' Deepening Mysteries
by theophrastus on Tuesday March 03, 2015 @12:40AM
(#9136286)
As mentioned in some of the comments to the posted article, I want to know if getting some spectroscopy on those white spots couldn't be possible. Perhaps summed over a quite long series? (Wouldn't it be a thrill if they were metallic?)
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According to the comment by Marc Rayman "We have obtained visible and infrared spectra every time we have acquired images. The results are not ready for release."
I don't think you'd get much from a spectrum. It's all (likely) reflected sunlight. It's not emitting light, so there are no emission lines, and it's not absorbing light, since there's no atmosphere.
Re:Ceres' Deepening Mysteries
by convivialdingo on Tuesday March 03, 2015 @01:28PM
(#9139553)
The lack of atmosphere actually helps, as the spectroscopy will be more accurate.
I would guess that it's a very reflective crystalline structure. You can see that as the bright structure goes beyond the terminator, it is still visible for a frame, but it completely disappears the frame after. It's hard to say either way though as we don't know the specs of the camera. Lots of materials reflect light differently at wavelengths outside our normal vision.
Re:Ceres' Deepening Mysteries
by theophrastus on Tuesday March 03, 2015 @01:04AM
(#9136336)
They concluded some of the mineralogy of the asteroid Vesta using spectroscopy ... http://solarviews.com/eng/vesta.htm
You'd get some from info. Different materials have different reflection curves, especially if they can also image infrared.
Just subtract the known spectrum curve of the sun, and check the difference.