NASAs Dawn spacecraft has already delivered the first details of craters on the surface ofCeres as it draws closer to itshistorical rendezvous with the dwarf planet. <\/p>\n
Dawn will be the first ever probe to visit a dwarf planet and has been heading for Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt, since it left its first mission objective, Vesta, in 2012. <\/p>\n
Its new images show the dwarf planet at 27 pixels across, around three times better than the calibration images taken in early December. The pictures are still only around 80 per cent of the resolution of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003 and 2004, but Dawn is about to get much closer to the dwarf world. <\/p>\n
At the end of January, its images will surpass Hubble resolution, bringing scientists the first clues about this icy body in the asteroid belt, which some academics believe may harbor a subsurface ocean. That puts Ceres in the same bracket as Jupiters moon Europa and Saturns moon Enceladus warm, wet planetary bodies that are potentially habitable. <\/p>\n
The Dawn spacecraft observed Ceres for an hour on Jan. 13, 2015, from a distance of 238,000 miles. A little more than half of its surface was observed at a resolution of 27 pixels. This animated GIF shows bright and dark features. (Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/UCLA\/MPS\/DLR\/IDA\/PSI) <\/p>\n
said Marc Rayman, Dawns chief engineer and mission director, based at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. <\/p>\n
Already, the [latest] images hint at first surface structures such as craters, added Andreas Nathues, lead investigator for the framing camera team at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany. <\/p>\n
Ceres sits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, has an average diameter of 590 miles and is thought to be made up of a large proportion of water though how much of that water is liquid is still in question. <\/p>\n
The dwarf planet is Dawns second port of call, after it delivered over 30,000 pictures and huge amounts of data and insight into Vesta, the second most massive object in the same asteroid belt. The probe orbited the 326-mile diameter space rock from 2011 to 2012, but thanks to its ion propulsion system, still has enough juice to be the first ever spacecraft to orbit two deep-space destinations. <\/p>\n
Ceres has offered tantalising hints about its make-up, including the presence of water vapour in its thin atmosphere and these first hints of craters on its surface. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
View post: <\/p>\n
NASA's Dawn Gets Closer To Potentially Habitable Dwarf Planet Ceres<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASAs Dawn spacecraft has already delivered the first details of craters on the surface ofCeres as it draws closer to itshistorical rendezvous with the dwarf planet. Dawn will be the first ever probe to visit a dwarf planet and has been heading for Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt, since it left its first mission objective, Vesta, in 2012. Its new images show the dwarf planet at 27 pixels across, around three times better than the calibration images taken in early December. Continue reading