{"id":18451,"date":"2018-07-03T21:44:48","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T13:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-dawn-probe-snaps-close-ups-of-ceres-formerly-mysterious-white-spots\/"},"modified":"2018-07-03T21:44:48","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T13:44:48","slug":"nasas-dawn-probe-snaps-close-ups-of-ceres-formerly-mysterious-white-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-dawn-probe-snaps-close-ups-of-ceres-formerly-mysterious-white-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Dawn probe snaps close-ups of Ceres\u2019 formerly mysterious white spots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ceres'
A mosaic of images from NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft shows a prominent mound of bright material on the western side of Cerealia Facula on dwarf planet Ceres. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ UCLA \/ MPS \/ DLR \/ IDA Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The once-mysterious bright spots shining on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres are getting their closest close-ups from NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft, adding to the strangest sights of the solar system.<\/p>\n

This week, NASA released a mosaic of images captured on June 22 from a height of 22 miles, showing mounds of the white stuff at the center of Occator Crater. Dawn\u2019s current close-up orbit will serve as the last act of a scientific saga that began with its launch more than a decade ago and featured visits to Ceres and Vesta, the two biggest objects in the main asteroid belt.<\/p>\n

Ceres\u2019 white spots shone brightly with reflected sunlight in the pictures that Dawn took from millions of miles away, leading some to dub them \u201calien headlights.\u201d For a time, Dawn\u2019s scientists puzzled over what they were made of. But the probe\u2019s spectral readings confirmed that the material in the bright spots consisted primarily of sodium carbonate.<\/p>\n

The close-up pictures should help Dawn\u2019s team answer follow-up questions relating to the origins of the bright spots. \u201cIn particular, scientists have been wondering how that material was exposed, either from a shallow, subsurface reservoir of mineral-laden water, or from a deeper source of brines (liquid water enriched in salts) percolating upward through fractures,\u201d NASA said in this week\u2019s image advisory.<\/p>\n

\"Occator
A June 24 image from NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft shows the Vinalia Faculae region inside Occator Crater on dwarf planet Ceres, as seen from an altitude of 24 miles. The complex structure of the dark background is reminiscent of lava flows on Earth. On Ceres, however, the process appears to have involved flowing ice rather than flowing lava. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ UCLA \/ MPS \/ DLR \/ IDA Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carol Raymond, a planetary scientist at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who serves as the Dawn mission\u2019s principal investigator, said the latest spotting brings the probe\u2019s adventure at Ceres full circle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first views of Ceres obtained by Dawn beckoned us with a single, blinding bright spot,\u201d she said. \u201cUnraveling the nature and history of this fascinating dwarf planet during the course of Dawn\u2019s extended stay at Ceres has been thrilling, and it is especially fitting that Dawn\u2019s last act will provide rich new data sets to test those theories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawn\u2019s scientific sunset is expected to occur later this year when its thruster fuel runs out, but even then, the probe will continue to circle Ceres in a stable orbit \u2014 to preserve the dwarf planet\u2019s surface in pristine condition for any life-detection probes that may follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mosaic of images from NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft shows a prominent mound of bright material on the western side of Cerealia Facula on dwarf planet Ceres. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ UCLA \/ MPS \/ DLR \/ IDA Photo) The once-mysterious bright spots shining on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres are getting their closest […]<\/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":[2838,5133,2840,4709],"class_list":["post-18451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ceres","tag-dawn-probe","tag-dwarf-planets","tag-planets"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18451"}],"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=18451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}