2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
Dawn and Ceres through the eyes of an artist
NASA has published a new animation of the rotation of Ceres around the axis, on which the mysterious light spot is clearly visible. It is clear from the video that the stain actually consists of many small spots. The nature of these spots is not yet clear, however, scientists believe that we can talk about ice.
Animation compiled from images captured by Dawn on May 3 and 4, 2015. Photos were taken from a distance of 13,600 kilometers. The resolution of the images is 1.3 kilometers per pixel.
Dawn has now completed the first half of its mission to map the dwarf planet. On May 9, the station began its descent to a lower - 4 400 kilometers - orbit, which it will reach on June 6. At the same time, scientists hope to get more detailed images of the surface of Ceres, in particular, light spots.
Ceres rotation animation
The Dawn spacecraft was launched on September 27, 2007. In August 2011, the station entered orbit around the asteroid Vesta, where it operated until August 2012. In March 2015, the device arrived at the dwarf planet Ceres, which it has been exploring to this day.
