[meteorite-list] Bright Spots Shine in Newest Dawn Ceres Images

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4619

Bright Spots Shine in Newest Dawn Ceres Images
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 10, 2015

New images of dwarf planet Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, show 
the cratered surface of this mysterious world in sharper detail than ever 
before. These are among the first snapshots from Dawn's second mapping 
orbit, which is 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above Ceres.

The region with the brightest spots is in a crater about 55 miles (90 
kilometers) across. The spots consist of many individual bright points 
of differing sizes, with a central cluster. So far, scientists have found 
no obvious explanation for their observed locations or brightness levels.

"The bright spots in this configuration make Ceres unique from anything 
we've seen before in the solar system. The science team is working to 
understand their source. Reflection from ice is the leading candidate 
in my mind, but the team continues to consider alternate possibilities, 
such as salt. With closer views from the new orbit and multiple view angles, 
we soon will be better able to determine the nature of this enigmatic 
phenomenon," said Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission 
based at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Numerous other features on Ceres intrigue scientists as they contrast 
this world with others, including protoplanet Vesta, which Dawn visited 
for 14 months in 2011 and 2012. Craters abound on both bodies, but Ceres 
appears to have had more activity on its surface, with evidence of flows, 
landslides and collapsed structures.

Additionally, new images from Dawn's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer 
(VIR) show a portion of Ceres' cratered northern hemisphere, taken on 
May 16, including a true-color view and a temperature image. The temperature 
image is derived from data in the infrared light range. This instrument 
is also important in determining the nature of the bright spots.

Having arrived in its current orbit on June 3, Dawn will observe the dwarf 
planet from 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above its surface until June 
28. In orbits of about three days each, the spacecraft will conduct intensive 
observations of Ceres. It will then move toward its next orbit of altitude 
900 miles (1,450 kilometers), arriving in early August.

On March 6, 2015, Dawn made history as the first mission to visit a dwarf 
planet, and the first to orbit two distinct extraterrestrial targets. 
At its previous target, Vesta, Dawn took tens of thousands of images and 
made many observations about the body's composition and other properties.

Dawn's mission is managed by JPL 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, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space 
Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international 
partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, 
visit:

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

More information about Dawn is available at the following sites:

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.nasa.gov/dawn


Media Contact

Elizabeth Landau
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6425
elizabeth.landau at jpl.nasa.gov 

2015-198