NASA's Dawn has sent in close-up images of the dwarf planet Ceres. They show previously unknown relief details, including a high cone-shaped mountain with signs of crater origin, entangled in a network of cracks.
A snapshot of a cone-shaped mountain from a distance of 1,470 km. Southern Hemisphere, height 6 km. The perimeter is clearly delineated; rock fragments are practically absent from the slopes dotted with cracks. Photo NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA
Dawn works flawlessly in the new orbit. Now he is sending in three times sharper images, revealing new features of this dwarf planet, ”says Mark Rayman, chief designer and mission leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
At the bottom left is a ridge in the center of Urvar crater on Ceres. Photo NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA
A snapshot of the Gaue crater from the Rassvet spacecraft. Gaue is a German goddess to whom offerings were made during the wheat harvest. Photo NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA
The new orbit of the Dawn movement is located 1470 km above Ceres. It takes him 11 days to capture the entire surface of the planet and send images to Earth. During this time, it makes 14 revolutions around the dwarf. Over the next two months, he will do this work 6 times.
To create an extensive map of the surface of Ceres, "Rassvet" uses a frame camera, which makes it possible to 3D-simulate images. Its resolution is 140 meters per pixel. One image captures less than 1% of the entire surface of the planet. At the same time, spectrometers for infrared and visible radiation operate on the apparatus. With their help, photographs are taken, according to which scientists analyze the mineral composition of the planet's surface.
The researchers also intend to make more accurate measurements of the gravitational field of Ceres to calculate the next, lower (375 km) orbit of the device, the transition to which is planned for the end of October this year. Dawn is the first spacecraft sent to a dwarf planet. He was also the first to be tasked with investigating two different objects in the solar system. In 2011-2012, it revolved around the protoplanet Vesta for 14 months, and on March 6, 2015, it reached Ceres.
As it gets closer to Ceres, Dawn makes more and more discoveries. Following the bright spots on the surface of the dwarf planet, the spacecraft discovered a pyramid-shaped mountain. The new photos were taken from a distance of 4,400 kilometers.
Just six months ago, Ceres was observed as a few pixels. Dawn is now approaching the dwarf planet as close as possible. By December of this year, the spacecraft will be at an altitude of only 360 kilometers above the surface of Ceres, which is below the altitude of the International Space Station above Earth, writes the British newspaper Daily Mail.
It is noteworthy that the pyramidal mountain rises above a relatively flat surface. In terms of height, this hill is comparable to the Mont Blanc massif between France and Italy. Mont Blanc, whose height reaches 4810 meters, is the highest mountain in Europe.
Another photo shows a few more bright spots. The diameter of the largest detected light spot is about nine kilometers. Scientists are inclined to believe that these areas are formed by the reflection of sunlight by salt and ice.
Dawn saw the first mysterious spot a few months ago. As they approached the planet, their number began to grow. Researchers have already counted up to eight spots. In fact, there may be even more of them.
Other images show areas with many lines and craters scattered across the surface of Ceres, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Past activity on its surface is also evidenced by landslides and destroyed structures of natural origin.
Dawn, arriving in time for Ceres on March 6, 2015, is the first spacecraft to orbit two separate celestial bodies in the solar system. Prior to that, he studied the protoplanet Vesta.
Dawn will remain in its current orbit until June 30th. In early August, he and Ceres will be separated by a distance of only 1,450 kilometers.
In the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Ceres was discovered on January 1, 1801 by the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi at the observatory in Palermo, Italy.
Comparative sizes Ceres, Earth and Moon.
As you can see, the planet Ceres is much smaller than the Moon, but Ceres is the largest planet in the Main Asteroid Belt ...
If our Moon were in this belt, it would be a real giant!
And this is the size of Ceres and Vesta with the Moon.
They account for 41% of the total mass of the main asteroid belt.
| - physical characteristics Equatorial radius - 487.3 ± 1.8 km Polar radius - 454.7 ± 1.6 km Weight (m) - 9.43 ± 0.07 x 10 20 kg Average density - 2.077 g / cm 3 Acceleration of gravity at the equator - 0.27 m / s 2 (0.028 g) Axle tilt - about 3 ° Declination of the north pole - 59 ° Albedo - 0.09 ± 0.0033 Spectral class - C Apparent magnitude - 6.7 to 9.32 Absolute stellar magnitude - 3.36 ± 0.02 Angle Diameter - 0.84 "to 0.33" |
- orbital characteristics: Perihelion - 381,028,000 km (2.5465 AU) Aphelios - 446,521,000 km (2.9842 AU) Semi-major axis (a) - 413,767,000 km (2.7653 AU) Orbital eccentricity (e) - 0.07934 Sidereal orbital period - 1680.5 days (4.60 Earth years) Orbital speed (v) - 17.882 km / s Inclination to the Ecliptic (i) - 10.585 ° |
It is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. According to calculations, Ceres accounts for 32% of the mass of this asteroid belt. The planet Ceres belongs to the recently distinguished class of dwarf planets along with Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris. It is the smallest of them. Dwarf planets differ, among other things, in that they have sufficient mass to give themselves a spherical shape under the influence of their own gravity.
It is assumed that planet ceres has a rocky core, ice mantle and a thin layer of regolith on the surface. Moreover, the mantle consists of water ice, which makes up 20-30% of the mass of Ceres.
According to some estimates, Ceres contains about 200 million km³ of water in the form of ice. This is 1/10 the volume of the earth's oceans and more than the earth's reserves of fresh water.
Ceres represents one of the most promising colonization targets in the distant future:
* Ceres has a very low gravity, that is, the take-off and landing of spaceships is greatly facilitated;
* Large reserves of water ice will provide the colony with water, fuel and air (water is split into hydrogen and oxygen)
* Ceres is a convenient base for exploring the systems of giant planets, thanks to its convenient location between the Inner and Outer planets.
But, there are also difficulties:
* There is no magnetic field on Ceres, which will adversely affect human health
* Low temperatures due to little sunlight
* There is not even a weak atmosphere that could partially protect at least from the smallest dust-like meteorites;
* Asteroids in the Main Belt pose a danger to ships
It is quite possible to see Ceres through a telescope - the brightness can reach about 7 magnitude, but to consider the details - alas.
Even a picture of Ceres from the Hubble telescope looked rather modest. And this is taking into account its power in the absence of atmospheric distortion. Until recently Ceres studied only with the help of telescopes, including radio telescopes, which showed that the surface of Ceres is relatively smooth.
Therefore, high hopes were pinned on NASA's "Down" spacecraft, which was launched on September 27, 2007 after numerous delays.
In 2011, AMC Dawn entered orbit around Vesta and then headed for Ceres.
Dawn entered the orbit of Ceres on March 6, 2015 and met the expectations of earthlings, starting a series of images, gradually descending over the planet.
Here is a small June video of the results of the photography. Used about 80 individual images.
On June 3, 2015, Rassvet entered an orbit of 4400 km. and began a new series of pictures, which he will take until 28 June.
The clarity of the images has increased markedly, the spots have disintegrated into separate parts, which previously merged into one. A sharp black line became more noticeable, "pierced" into the central light spot "from below to the right". This line looks like a defect in the image, but in the earlier image it was already present in this place.
But, all the same, the spots remain a mystery. So far, this is the best image of the spots on Ceres.
Video from NASA, uploaded on August 6th. This is a video of a three-dimensional model of the surface of Ceres, more precisely two of its regions - with incomprehensible light spots and an area with a high peaked mountain, a peak about 6 km high above the surrounding surface:
Video from NASA, posted on September 9th. A computer model of the Occator crater on Ceres, in which the same light spots are located:
On September 9, new images of light spots in the Occator crater are uploaded.
The resolution was 140 meters per point.
The pictures were taken from an altitude of 1470 km.
The walls of Occator are curious - in some places they reach a height of two kilometers and at the same time are completely vertical.
Alas, the new pictures have not yet clarified anything particularly. On the other hand, these spots no longer look like the lights of alien cities.
We are waiting for the further descent of the Dawn spacecraft - the next series of images will be taken from an orbit of 375 kilometers.
Video from NASA, posted on January 29th, 2016.
Video based on images from an altitude of 1450 km. from August to October 2015.
On June 29, 2016, researchers announced that, according to new data, the main mineral of the mysterious light region on Ceres in the Occator crater is sodium carbonate. On Earth, it is most commonly found in hydrothermal vents. This suggests past hydrothermal activity on Ceres.
The highest mountain on Ceres is Ahuna Mons, a 5 km high cryovolcano.
The current position of Ceres and other most noticeable celestial bodies, see the page Map of the sky online. More on this topic:
Asteroid Vesta
Eris is a dwarf planet
NASA's Dawn space probe has released the highest quality images to date of the dwarf planet Ceres.
The NASA space probe captured images of the southern hemisphere of Ceres with a record resolution of 35 meters per pixel. The agency released photographs from the US probe Dawn, launched in late September 2007. Photos were taken on December 10 from a record low altitude - about 385 kilometers, writes "Notepad".
In October 2015, the probe began its final descent into its final orbit at just 385 kilometers, in which the spacecraft will operate until shutdown in 2016.
"Dawn" became intcbatch the first space probe to complete an unprecedented mission. Having studied Vesta (one of the largest asteroids), he left its orbit and headed for another object - Ceres (the closest dwarf planet to Earth).
The Dawn spacecraft was launched into space on September 27, 2007 using the Delta-2 launch vehicle. The main objectives of the probe were the most massive objects of the main asteroid belt: the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The study of Vesta was completed in mid-2012, after which the device headed towards its second target - the dwarf planet Ceres, arriving in March 2015.
