{"id":16077,"date":"2015-09-09T20:33:31","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T12:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/dawn-gets-better-look-at-bright-spots-on-ceres\/"},"modified":"2015-09-09T20:33:31","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T12:33:31","slug":"dawn-gets-better-look-at-bright-spots-on-ceres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/dawn-gets-better-look-at-bright-spots-on-ceres\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn gets better look at bright spots on Ceres"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This
This image taken by NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft, shows Occator crater on Ceres, home to a collection of intriguing bright spots. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft, nearly halfway through its exploration of the dwarf planet Ceres, has returned its best images yet of a mysterious grouping of bright spots inside a crater on the Texas-sized world, bolstering evidence that Ceres is geologically alive.<\/p>\n

Six months after its arrival at Ceres, the Dawn probe is now circling the frozen dwarf planet at a distance of about 915 miles (1,470 kilometers), the third of four orbits taking the spacecraft progressively closer to Ceres.<\/p>\n

The view of a crater named Occator released Wednesday is the sharpest view yet of bright spots first resolved as Dawn approached Ceres. The features are part of a complex structure that scientists say is strong evidence that the dwarf planet \u2014 the biggest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter \u2014 remains geologically active.<\/p>\n

\u201cDawn has transformed what was so recently a few bright dots into a complex and beautiful, gleaming landscape,\u201d said Marc Rayman, Dawn\u2019s chief engineer and mission director based at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. \u201cSoon, the scientific analysis will reveal the geological and chemical nature of this mysterious and mesmerizing extraterrestrial scenery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analysts combined two images of Occator crater, one with exposure settings to resolve the bright spots and another to add detail from the darker surrounding terrain. The image has a resolution of 450 feet, or 140 meters, about three times better than images from Dawn\u2019s last mapping campaign from a higher orbit in June.<\/p>\n

Researchers are not sure what the bright spots are, but NASA has started an online poll for the public to cast their predictions. The options in the poll include ice, salts, rock, a volcano, or a geyser.<\/p>\n

Dawn has located a four-mile-high pyramid-shaped mountain on another part of Ceres. Bright streaks along the flank of the peak have also caught the attention of scientists looking for exposed ice deposits.<\/p>\n

\"Dawn
Dawn spotted this conical mountain in Ceres\u2019 southern hemisphere. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Launched in September 2007, Dawn first visited the giant asteroid Vesta, then spiraled toward Ceres powered by an ultra-efficient ion propulsion system. The xenon-fueled engines allowed Dawn to become the first spacecraft to orbit two celestial bodies.<\/p>\n

Dawn arrived in its current 915-mile-high orbit around Ceres in August, and mission planners will begin moving the craft closer to the dwarf planet in October. It takes about 19 hours for Dawn to complete one lap around Ceres in its current orbit, and scientists will use the two-month campaign to take pictures of the frozen body\u2019s surface at different angles to build up a 3D terrain map and stereo image catalog.<\/p>\n

The mission\u2019s final orbit will be about 233 miles (375 kilometers) from Ceres, allowing highly-accurate measurements of its gravity field and surface composition.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This image taken by NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft, shows Occator crater on Ceres, home to a collection of intriguing bright spots. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft, nearly halfway through its exploration of the dwarf planet Ceres, has returned its best images yet of a mysterious grouping of bright spots inside a crater on the Texas-sized world, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2837,2838,2839,2840,1561],"class_list":["post-16077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid-belt","tag-ceres","tag-dawn","tag-dwarf-planets","tag-planetary-science"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}