The bright spot on Ceres is shown in the image below. But I have to warn you, they’ve used some very strange brightness compression algorithm, the central bright blob in the crater is more than ten times as bright as the crater walls, and the roughly rectangular blob in the 3 o’clock position is about 5 times as bright as the crater walls. They don’t look that much brighter.

However, what this does show for the first time is the detailed internal structure of the bright spot on Ceres (the spot from https://xkcd.com/1476/). The spot’s explanation is now even more of a mystery to me.

For two animated views of flying around the spots see
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-detail.html?id=PIA19890
in greyscale, and a different link in false colour. (Link not included here because it’s not loading properly for me, see http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/ for all recent images).

Previous thread with some (but not much) discussion:

Spots of Ceres in Greater Detail

http://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/?main=http%3A//tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/topics/6499/

Out, damned spot.

AwesomeO said:

Out, damned spot.

Ah Macbeth, it’s more pertinent in todays Australia then it was in the Bards time.

Peak Warming Man said:

AwesomeO said:

Out, damned spot.

Ah Macbeth, it’s more pertinent in todays Australia then it was in the Bards time.

Except that you really shouldn’t use that word in public.

Peak Warming Man said:

AwesomeO said:

Out, damned spot.

Ah Macbeth, it’s more pertinent in todays Australia then it was in the Bards time.

So as not to bring the pox down on this forum could you please, in future, refer to it as ‘that Scottish play’.

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

AwesomeO said:

Out, damned spot.

Ah Macbeth, it’s more pertinent in todays Australia then it was in the Bards time.

Except that you really shouldn’t use that word in public.

Only if one is an actor.

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

AwesomeO said:

Out, damned spot.

Ah Macbeth, it’s more pertinent in todays Australia then it was in the Bards time.

Except that you really shouldn’t use that word in public.

nah, it’s just it the theater you are supposed to call it “The Scottish Play” outside the theater is fine

sibeen said:

Peak Warming Man said:

AwesomeO said:

Out, damned spot.

Ah Macbeth, it’s more pertinent in todays Australia then it was in the Bards time.

So as not to bring the pox down on this forum could you please, in future, refer to it as ‘that Scottish play’.

again, this is not a theater

jjjust moi said:

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Ah Macbeth, it’s more pertinent in todays Australia then it was in the Bards time.

Except that you really shouldn’t use that word in public.

Only if one is an actor.

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

jjjust moi said:

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Ah Macbeth, it’s more pertinent in todays Australia then it was in the Bards time.

Except that you really shouldn’t use that word in public.

Only if one is an actor.

All of life is a stage.

The Rev Dodgson said:

jjjust moi said:

roughbarked said:

Except that you really shouldn’t use that word in public.

Only if one is an actor.

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

It is a rich tapestry.

roughbarked said:

jjjust moi said:

roughbarked said:

Except that you really shouldn’t use that word in public.

Only if one is an actor.

All of life is a stage.

35 seconds

8 more words

and a correct quote

:)

by roughbarked], on Flickr

The Rev Dodgson said:

roughbarked said:

jjjust moi said:

Only if one is an actor.

All of life is a stage.

35 seconds

8 more words

and a correct quote

:)

There you have it.

to be or not to be.

oh good gracious… when Shakespeare gets mutilated

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Ah Macbeth, it’s more pertinent in todays Australia then it was in the Bards time.

Except that you really shouldn’t use that word in public.

nah, it’s just it the theater you are supposed to call it “The Scottish Play” outside the theater is fine

You mean… The Blackadder lied to us???

party_pants said:

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Except that you really shouldn’t use that word in public.

nah, it’s just it the theater you are supposed to call it “The Scottish Play” outside the theater is fine

You mean… The Blackadder lied to us???

well, I spent ten years in the theater and not once have I ever heard it bad to say it outside of the theater. In fact if they couldn’t say it advertising would be difficult.

If you do say it while standing in the theater in order to reverse the bad luck, the person who uttered the word must exit the theater, spin around three times saying a profanity, and then ask for permission to return inside.

Arts said:

party_pants said:

Arts said:

nah, it’s just it the theater you are supposed to call it “The Scottish Play” outside the theater is fine

You mean… The Blackadder lied to us???

well, I spent ten years in the theater and not once have I ever heard it bad to say it outside of the theater. In fact if they couldn’t say it advertising would be difficult.

If you do say it while standing in the theater in order to reverse the bad luck, the person who uttered the word must exit the theater, spin around three times saying a profanity, and then ask for permission to return inside.

Laurence Olivier says this – if you do slip up and utter the dreaded name you can reverse the bad luck by performing a traditional cleansing ritual. You have to turn three times, spit over your left shoulder and recite an appropriate line from a different play, such as ‘angels and ministers of grace defend us,’ from Hamlet.

I took my son to the scottish restaurant on the weekend, where he had a “joyous repast” as we say in the industry.

dv said:

I took my son to the scottish restaurant on the weekend, where he had a “joyous repast” as we say in the industry.

Was it the bright spot of his day?

Arts said:

oh good gracious… when Shakespeare gets mutilated

Sounds like the clock I was just fixing.. Nylon parts. the snail on the strike rack was cracked and falling off. Though that wasn’t what i saw when I quoted the clock. Of course while I was fixing it, I noted the cracked part and usd a soldering iron to attempt to seal the crack rather than attempt a glue option so that the part would stay on and not fall off. I managed to just stick it on so that I could see if it worked and as per usual, I difdn’t check where I put it. So of course the clock rather than bim bam, said bam bim. A simple matter of rotating the snail half a turn and re-attach.

Bubblecar said:

Previous thread with some (but not much) discussion:

Spots of Ceres in Greater Detail

http://tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/?main=http%3A//tokyo3.org/forums/holiday/topics/6499/

Oops, I’ve been away. Thanks for the previous thread.

dv said:

To my mind it is still looking more like a “splatter” rather than something you’d see from hydrothermal activity, for instance.

Well spotted dv, it certainly does, but that makes it even more mysterious. It would mean that there had to be an exceptionally low speed impact with something very bright (such as a chunk of Enceladus, which has an albedo near 100%). In that case the location in the dead centre of a crater would have to be totally coincidental wouldn’t it?

If the splatter was from an asteroid then it would have to be an enstatite asteroid made from MgSiO3 like 434 Hungaria, I think, as they have the highest albedo. But even then the albedo is only about 35%, probably not high enough, and the orbit is too far away from that of Ceres. The asteroids that Ceres regularly collides gently with are from the 1726 Hoffmeister asteroid family, and those have an albedo that is low even by asteroid belt standards.

So it still doesn’t make sense.

roughbarked said:

Arts said:

oh good gracious… when Shakespeare gets mutilated

Sounds like the clock I was just fixing.. Nylon parts. the snail on the strike rack was cracked and falling off. Though that wasn’t what i saw when I quoted the clock. Of course while I was fixing it, I noted the cracked part and usd a soldering iron to attempt to seal the crack rather than attempt a glue option so that the part would stay on and not fall off. I managed to just stick it on so that I could see if it worked and as per usual, I difdn’t check where I put it. So of course the clock rather than bim bam, said bam bim. A simple matter of rotating the snail half a turn and re-attach.

do you have to use one of those big magnifying glasses in front of your face?

Arts said:

roughbarked said:

Arts said:

oh good gracious… when Shakespeare gets mutilated

Sounds like the clock I was just fixing.. Nylon parts. the snail on the strike rack was cracked and falling off. Though that wasn’t what i saw when I quoted the clock. Of course while I was fixing it, I noted the cracked part and usd a soldering iron to attempt to seal the crack rather than attempt a glue option so that the part would stay on and not fall off. I managed to just stick it on so that I could see if it worked and as per usual, I difdn’t check where I put it. So of course the clock rather than bim bam, said bam bim. A simple matter of rotating the snail half a turn and re-attach.

do you have to use one of those big magnifying glasses in front of your face?

My eyes are getting old so I use one pair or chuck another pair on top, of magnifying cheap lenses for a lot of stuff but a watchmaker always uses a loupe to see what is needed to be seen, up close like. The reason being, that the eye needs to follow both hands in minutae.