What I've Spent All Day On

What Are the Bright Spots on Ceres?

Dwarf planet Ceres has more than 130 bright areas, and most of them are associated with impact craters. Now, Ceres has revealed some of its well-kept secrets in two new studies in the journal Nature, thanks to data from our Dawn spacecraft.

Two studies have been looking into the mystery behind these bright areas. One study identifies this bright material as a kind of salt, while the other study suggests the detection of ammonia-rich clays. 

Study authors write that the bright material is consistent with a type of magnesium sulfate called hexahydrite. A different type of magnesium sulfate is familiar on Earth as Epsom salt.

Researchers, using images from Dawn’s framing camera, suggest that these salt-rich areas were left behind when water-ice sublimated in the past. Impacts from asteroids would have unearthed the mixture of ice and salt.

An image of Occator Crater (below) shows the brightest material on Ceres. Occator itself is 60 miles in diameter, and its central pit, covered by this bright material, measures about 6 miles wide. With its sharp rim and walls, it appears to be among the youngest features on the dwarf planet.

In the second nature study, members of the Dawn science team examined the composition of Ceres and found evidence for ammonia-rich clays. Why is this important?

Well, ammonia ice by itself would evaporate on Ceres today, because it is too warm. However, ammonia molecules could be stable if present in combination with other minerals. This raises the possibility that Ceres did not originate in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, where it currently resides. But instead, might have formed in the outer solar system! Another idea is that Ceres formed close to its present position, incorporating materials that drifted in from the outer solar system, near the orbit of Neptune, where nitrogen ices are thermally stable.

As of this week, our Dawn spacecraft has reached its final orbital altitude at Ceres (about 240 miles from the surface). In mid-December, it will begin taking observations from this orbit, so be sure to check back for details!

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This has that really nice upbeat tempo Hong Kong Streets does along with some traditional instruments. I loved how no matter what you did in Hong Kong, the music would stay fast and upbeat, even if you were just looking around in an alley or something.

I also feel this would make some really nice map music for a Bamboo forest multiplayer map. Spring time, giant bamboo shoots throughout the map and near midway there could be a big pond with large sight lines in an otherwise low visibility map. It would have to have bright lighting, even in the forest, maybe noon or just after, a few large trails and several smaller ones cutting through the forest. Probably have a creek waterfall that flows into the pond as well with good ambient sounds, the water and local wildlife. A small or medium size map, limited or no vehicles allowed.

Can't even reformat, the disk drive won't stay spun up to use the recovery disc

Asks

I really should make a big basic info post first, but I haven't yet and will soon eventually, but I'm open to asks about my characters and setting or anything really. It might help with worldbuilding.

I started Jojo

Why is Stardust Crusaders so damn long? It’s longer than Part 1 and 2 combined! Part 1 was cool, Part 2 was really fun then Part 3 just felt like it was dragging after a while.

I bet Melon plays Engineer in Team Fortress and spams voice chat with manic laughter as the sentries slaughter entire teams

Melon

reblog if you agree

I made a 'How 2 maek Humis' for the Lemonman and decided I might as well post this on Tumblr as well. I'm not going to say it's the best way to make Hummus ever, but it's pretty good.

Most important part is taste testing to make sure you didn't add too much or too little of something. If you're not sure how much to add it's better to go low and add more later than add too much and screw it up.

I keep forgetting to post this, I drew this at Starbucks the other day

Once before when I was at that Starbucks I was thinking about what kinds of animals would be in my setting and one that stuck was the Wyvernling, a little flying creature that could be found in and around Helen's Point, one of the main Cazanan cities. The Wyvernling is 6 to 8 feet long at the largest, feathery/furry and an omnivorous predator. It divebombs small animals, tacking and eating them. I was also thinking of them being an uncommon pet so they should be at least a little cute and pretty friendly. They're too bulky to perch in trees, but that doesn't necessarily stop them from sitting in trees, more like a panther than a bird. They'll have a moderate intelligence, able to understand words and phrases, but not as smart as an ape or raven. They are warmblooded mammals who mate for life and have live birth. They will attack and try to kill creatures many times their size if their young are immediately threatened and they have very sharp teeth and claws which allows them to kill much larger creatures, even if they don't actively hunt them. The lifespan in most subspecies is about 20 years with some able to live 60 or more.

I'll probably draw them much more catlike as that's what I'm currently associating them the most with, big flying cats.

Cut out the holster as I couldn't think of any way for it to hold a wide array of weapons and still be quick and easy to use. Probably gonna go with magnets instead.

Han wasn’t flying it that time though

The Millennium Falcon Satellite Dish

Here’s a thing I noticed while watching the Star Wars trailer yesterday. The Falcon has a new satellite dish. Below you can see what it used to look like (taken from A New Hope) and what it looks like in The Force Awakens. 

It’s completely different. At first I thought “that’s a weird thing to change, but OK, the Falcon got an upgrade since Return of the Jedi.” And then I remembered:

Oh right. It needed a new satellite dish.