[meteorite-list] Dawn Glimpses Ceres' North Pole

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4555

Dawn Glimpses Ceres' North Pole
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
April 16, 2015

[Animation]
This animation shows the north pole of dwarf planet Ceres as seen by the 
Dawn spacecraft on April 10, 2015. Dawn was at a distance of 21,000 miles 
(33,000 kilometers) when its framing camera took these images. Credit: 
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

After spending more than a month in orbit on the dark side of dwarf planet 
Ceres, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has captured several views of the sunlit 
north pole of this intriguing world. These images were taken on April 
10 from a distance of 21,000 miles (33,000 kilometers), and they represent 
the highest-resolution views of Ceres to date.

Subsequent images of Ceres will show surface features at increasingly 
better resolution.

Dawn arrived at Ceres on March 6, marking the first time a spacecraft 
has orbited a dwarf planet. Previously, the spacecraft explored giant 
asteroid Vesta for 14 months from 2011 to 2012. Dawn has the distinction 
of being the only spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial targets.

Ceres, with an average diameter of about 590 miles (950 kilometers), is 
the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn 
has been using its ion propulsion system to maneuver to its first science 
orbit at Ceres, which it will reach on April 23. The spacecraft will remain 
at a distance of 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers) from the dwarf planet 
until May 9. Afterward, it will make its way to lower orbits.

Dawn's mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, 
California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn 
is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's 
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible 
for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK, Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, 
designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max 
Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and 
the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners 
on the mission team. For a complete list of acknowledgements, visit:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission

For more information about Dawn, visit:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov


Media Contact

Elizabeth Landau
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6425
Elizabeth.Landau at jpl.nasa.gov 

2015-133