Dawn Spacecraft Takes Best Pictures of Ceres Yet #Ceres #DawnSpacecraft #NASA - http://clapway.com/2015/08/26/nasa-dawn-spacecraft-ceres123/

NASA has released stunning new images taken by its Dawn spacecraft of Ceres, providing the closest pictures of the dwarf planet ever. And, the “Lonely Mountain” – NASA’s nickname for a four-mile-tall mountain on the planet’s surface – can be seen in unprecedented detail.

The photos were taken at an altitude of 915 miles above the planet, a distance at which Dawn will stay for two months until it has mapped the planet six times. This distance is significantly closer to the planet than the 3,200 altitude that Dawn first took pictures from. And in October, Dawn will get even closer to Ceres when it maps it from a mere 320 mile altitude. As The Economic Times pointed out, NASA scientists are improving their measurements of the dwarf planet’s gravity field to prepare for the upcoming orbit.

You can check out all of the photos, which were shot at a resolution of 450 feet per pixel, at NASA’s website.

AMBITIOUS EXPLORATION

In a statement, the Dawn mission director and chief engineer Marc Rayman said “Dawn is performing flawlessly in this new orbit as it conducts its ambitious exploration. The spacecraft’s view is now three times as sharp as in its previous mapping orbit, revealing exciting new details of this intriguing dwarf planet.”

As CNET pointed out, NASA scientists are using the photographs, along with an infrared and visible mapping spectrometer, to study the dwarf planet’s surface minerals.

MORE ON CERES

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Ceres has a diameter of about 598 miles and first became known to astronomers in 1801. The massive pyramid-shaped mountain (which as Phil Plait pointed out at Slate could also be called “Mt. Doom” or “Mount Seleya”) has been visualized by NASA in a tour of the mountain animated with CGI. Along with Ceres’ bright spots, the mountain has been a source of intrigue and fascination to many scientists.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF DAWN

Dawn, which was first launched by NASA in 2007, arrived in Ceres orbit in March 2015. Before it started mapping Ceres, Dawn spent more than a year observing the proto-planet Vesta.

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Dawn Spacecraft Takes Best Pictures of Ceres Yet

Water On Ceres? Dawn Spacecraft Finds Evidence of Sub-Surface Oceans - http://clapway.com/2015/08/02/water-on-ceres-dawn-spacecraft-finds-evidence-of-sub-surface-oceans-101/

We have seen a lot of great astronomical accomplishments in the last month. New Horizons’ flyby of Pluto, the discovery of Earth-like (super-earth) planets only 21 light-years away, and Rosetta’s discovery of the chemical compounds necessary to generate life on Comet 67P giving first empirical support to the notion of space-seeded biogenesis, and evolution.

DAWN RENDEZVOUS WITH CERES

But recently, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft spiraled into its third and closest orbit of Ceres, and now the spacecraft has finally entered orbit just a few miles over the dwarf planet’s surface. Since then, mission control has released color-coded images which show inconsistencies in Ceres’ topological structure, in both valleys and hills.

Similar to Saturn’s two moons Tethys and Dione are Ceres’, Ceres also has craters encirclilng the planet in a way that suggests an old, tempered surface. Mission Scientist Paul Schenk commented that those two moons of Saturn’s are similar in both size and density.

But something stands out on Ceres. There are two impact craters named Dantu and Ezinu that are unusually deep. Near their edges, two impact basins called Kerwan and Yalode are larger, but ordinarily shallow.

Another member of the Dawn science team named Ralph Jaumann (also of the German Aerospace Center) believes the presence of these differing features is actually a sign of “increasing ice mobility with crater size age.”

This means that, because of its large craters, Ceres could in fact be some sort of water world with subsurface oceans.

“Dawn has the potential for making many paradigm-shifting discoveries. Ceres may have active hydrological processes leading to seasonal polar caps of water frost, altering our understanding of the interior of these bodies,” read a NASA statement.

WATER ON CERES?

Even more exciting is the possibility for the dwarf planet to hold down a thin yet permanent atmosphere. Ceres’ enigmatic bright spots, shining from the bottom of a crater, seem to actually support a small, localized atmosphere by sublimating emerging chemicals out into space at a high enough rate of flow to create pressure, i.e. atmosphere.

These craters and peaks were captured in color photos and released to the masses by NASA on July 28th. NASA was also able to surmise that Ceres’ diameter is about 598 miles, which leaves it a bit smaller than the 607 miles scientists originally suspected.

 

 

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UNTIL WE BREAK THE ICE WITH CERES, HERE’S SOMETHING MORE DOWN TO EARTH:

 

Water On Ceres? Dawn Spacecraft Finds Evidence of Sub-Surface Oceans

Speculation on Dwarf Planet Ceres Bright Spots - http://clapway.com/2015/05/26/speculation-on-dwarf-planet-ceres-bright-spots-123/

As the Dawn spacecraft continues its adventure, getting closer to the dwarf planet Ceres, scientists are still speculating on what the bright spots seen on the planet’s surface might be. Despite the spacecraft coming as close as 4,500 miles above the surface, there still is no definitive answer as to what the spots are.

NASA Asks the Public’s Opinion

As better images have been available of the dwarf planet Ceres, NASA has asked the public to weigh in on what they think the bright spots on Ceres might be. Answers have ranged from the highly thoughtful to the outlandish. Christopher Russell of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the lead investigator on the Dawn mission, has stated that their conclusion is that it is some sort of shiny material that is just reflecting the rays of the Sun. However, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. He also says that they figure the material is probably ice.

Good and Bad Ideas Put Forward About the Dwarf Planet Ceres

Some have hoped that the bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres are signs of intelligent life, perhaps an extraterrestrial outpost or remnants of alien probes. Other suggestions are that the lights are volcanoes, geysers, salt deposits or simply ice. One commenter on the Dawn mission Facebook page suggested that it might be a replica of Las Vegas, as the spots looks oddly similar to the shape Las Vegas lights take when seen from space.

Results of NASA Poll Shows Many Undecided

The results of the NASA poll have so far proven not to be very helpful in finding a consensus as to what the bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres might be. The adventure in theorizing is still ongoing among the public and scientists alike. A full 37% chose “other” as the reason for the bright lights, meaning they hadn’t heard a theory yet that they were happy with. Around 30% are going with the idea that the reflective surface is ice. Geysers came in with 9% of the vote, while salt deposits garnered 8% and some apparently very shiny rocks took 6% of the vote.

The bright spots are located inside a crater on the dwarf planet Ceres and many are speculating that they are elevated above the crater floor. Other speculation wonders if the spots occurred after the Hubble Space Telescope took photos in 2004, or if it simply missed seeing them because of the distance.

The answer really is that we are not likely to know for certain what the bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres are until probes can get down there and actually take samples. Until then, it is fun to fantasize that they are something more interesting than ice.

Speculation on Dwarf Planet Ceres Bright Spots