Dawn spacecraft captures Ceres’ sunlit pole
Dawn spacecraft captures Ceres’ sunlit pole
Apr 17, 2015
by Deborah Byrd in » Science Wire, Space
This animation is made from the highest resolution images to date of the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn spacecraft – which arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015 and has spent more than a month in orbit on the dwarf planet’s dark side – captured the images to make this animation of Ceres’ sunlit north pole on April 10. At the time, the spacecraft was descending toward its first planned science orbit – labeled RC3 in the diagram below – which will be 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers) above Ceres’ surface. Dawn was at a distance of 21,000 miles (33,000 kilometers) when its framing camera took these images. It’ll reach the orbit RC3 on April 23.
Ceres is a tiny world – formerly labeled an asteroid, orbiting in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter – with an average diameter of about 590 miles (950 kilometers).
Subsequent images of Ceres will show surface features at increasingly better resolution.
More
http://earthsky.org/space/dawn-spacecraft-captures-ceres-sunlit-pole?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=9ee7cc05c8-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-9ee7cc05c8-393525109
My ancient phone didn't show vid or animated gif. Maybe yours will..._/i]
= new reply since forum marked as read
Very cool.
