Message from Ceres

Discussion in 'Techforge' started by Aurora, Mar 3, 2015.

  1. Aurora

    Aurora Vincerò!

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    [​IMG]

    Welcome to Ceres, a dwarf planet within the asteroid belt. It's being visited by the Dawn probe as we speak. It also has one two lights shining on its surface :borg:

    Not saying it's aliens. Probably just a long abandoned alien outpost with a grudge and an automated invasion fleet.
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  2. oldfella1962

    oldfella1962 the only real finish line

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    DAMN KIDS! I tell them and tell them to turn off the lights when they leave a planet.
    I bet the front door is open too. I'm not heating the whole galaxy you know!
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  3. gul

    gul Revolting Beer Drinker Administrator Formerly Important

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    Some sort of chemical reaction going on?
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  4. LizK

    LizK Sort of lurker

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    You mean you forgot to check on them using the latest security app?
  5. gul

    gul Revolting Beer Drinker Administrator Formerly Important

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    Reflected sun light? (there's probably a lot of sub-surface water and ice on Ceres).
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  6. Lanzman

    Lanzman Vast, Cool and Unsympathetic Formerly Important

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    What gul said. Sunlight reflecting off of ice.
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  7. Aurora

    Aurora Vincerò!

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    After checking with my sources I can say it's ice. Totally is. Nothing to see here, move along :johnm:

    Seriously, it's weird. First of all you'd think sunlight out there wouldn't be strong enough to produce such an effect. Secondly, it's visible from different angles.
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  8. We Are Borg

    We Are Borg Republican Democrat

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    Maybe it's one of the failed Mars probes that missed orbital insertion and, by some amazing coincidence, kept going and hit Ceres? :shrug:
  9. oldfella1962

    oldfella1962 the only real finish line

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    "One in a million shot doc, one in a million!"
  10. We Are Borg

    We Are Borg Republican Democrat

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    Orbital insertion at 7:20 ET today! :hyper:

    EDIT: NASA confirms successful orbit!!!

    [​IMG]
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  11. Will Power

    Will Power If you only knew the irony of my name.

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    I know this is a literal shot in the dark, but what if the lights coming from Ceres are biological in origin? Bioluminescent microbes that live just under the crust of diminutive Ceres(?).
  12. oldfella1962

    oldfella1962 the only real finish line

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    That could very well be. Great if we find out for sure! :banana:

    What if something like my dream I had a while back comes true? I posted it, the dream where I was boring through ice on Europa and found a pointed skull of a small shrew-like creature with sharp teeth? :calli:
  13. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    Whenever I read things like this, I'm reminded of an old SF story I once read called something like "The Emissary" or "The Ambassador." No clue as to who the author was. Anyway, it takes place on the first manned mission to Jupiter. The crew can't help but notice that one of Jupiter's moons has what appears to be latitude and longitude lines on its surface. As they get closer to try and figure out what might have caused those lines, they realize that that's no moon, its a space station! (Or rather, space ship.) They land, and find their way into the ship. Its pretty barren, the crew either having left, or the ship having orbited Jupiter for so long that everything organic has long since decayed. In the middle of the ship, however, they find a statue, representing what they can only guess were the species of the aliens who built the ship. Its a lizard-like figure, reaching out with his hand, thus acting as the emissary (or ambassador) of the title.
  14. Bickendan

    Bickendan Custom Title Administrator Faceless Mook Writer

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    [​IMG]
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  15. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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  16. gul

    gul Revolting Beer Drinker Administrator Formerly Important

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    Damn, almost as high as Everest, and 50 miles high when scaled to relative Earth proportions.
  17. Dinner

    Dinner 2012 & 2014 Master Prognosticator

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    It is too bad we can't crash a bunch of those mini planets into Mars and make it bigger.
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  18. Dinner

    Dinner 2012 & 2014 Master Prognosticator

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    Ahh, come on Lanz. Leaving aside the fact that it is not possible adding around 1/3rd to the mass of Mars and restarting their magnetic field due to the heat of impact makes a cool what if. In a few million years it might even be Earth like. :)

    Where is your sense of imagination? :P
  19. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti-establishment Staff Member Administrator

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    It could easily be accomplished by an otter-crewed space submarine IMHO.
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  20. Bickendan

    Bickendan Custom Title Administrator Faceless Mook Writer

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    Using asteroids to increase Mars' mass is less viable than trying to slam an asteroid into Venus to speed up its retrograde rotational period, and even that poses significant hurdles that wouldn't make it a good use of resources.
  21. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    And we're still trying to figure out what they are.
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  22. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    Does Ceres have ice volcanos?
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  23. Minsc&Boo

    Minsc&Boo Fresh Meat

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  24. Kommander

    Kommander Bandwagon

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    He said "orbital insertion." Heh, heh heh.

    beavisbutthead.jpg
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  25. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    Looks like Ceres has organic material on it.
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