Ceres
Ceres
[Megan sitting in front of her laptop talks to Cueball who stand behind her.] Megan: Dawn has almost reached Ceres. Megan: I'm excited that we'll finally learn what that stupid white dot is.
[Current version of Dawn's best picture of Ceres and the white spot is shown.]
[As Dawn get's closer the pictures improve and in the second version the white spot shows to have black markings.]
[In the last zoom in on Ceres, the white dot resolves to a badge with clear black text:] Inspected by No. 6

Ceres is the largest known asteroid and the smallest known dwarf planet . Megan sits at her computer and tells Cueball how exciting it will be when Dawn will discover what is the cause of the "stupid white dot" on Ceres.
Dawn is a probe sent by NASA in 2007 to examine the asteroid belt . Having already visited the protoplanet Vesta in 2012, Dawn is now scheduled to arrive at Ceres on March 6, 2015. Dawn's initial images of Ceres were released two days before this comic, quickly inspiring questions about the white spot . The spot was first noticed in photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope .
" Inspected By No. 6 " refers to a series of quality assurance stickers used by US clothing manufacturers. Individual inspectors, each assigned a number, randomly sample products for workmanship. Accepted items are marked with that inspector's sticker. The presumed joke is that the white spot is a large sticker indicating that Ceres has passed inspection. This might also be a reference to The Rift's M6 being stationed at Ceres inspecting a crater.
CERES (Certification of Environmental Standards) is also the name of a food inspection company based in Germany. Both the food inspection company and the dwarf planet are named for Ceres , the ancient Roman harvest goddess from whom English derives the word " cereal ."
The title text extends the joke to the planet Earth, where salmonella can be found. Salmonella are harmful microorganisms that are sometimes found in food products subject to improper handling or overlong storage. Mixing the realms of astronomical objects and food once more, the title text concludes that the planet Earth clearly hasn't been tested by CERES since salmonella can be found on it.
The Dawn mission is mentioned in 1532: New Horizons .
[Megan sitting in front of her laptop talks to Cueball who stand behind her.] Megan: Dawn has almost reached Ceres. Megan: I'm excited that we'll finally learn what that stupid white dot is.
[Current version of Dawn's best picture of Ceres and the white spot is shown.]
[As Dawn get's closer the pictures improve and in the second version the white spot shows to have black markings.]
[In the last zoom in on Ceres, the white dot resolves to a badge with clear black text:] Inspected by No. 6
