[meteorite-list] New Ceres Images Show Bright Craters

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2016-106

New Ceres Images Show Bright Craters
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
April 19, 2016

[Image]
Ceres' Haulani Crater, with a diameter of 21 miles (34 kilometers), shows 
evidence of landslides from its crater rim. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Craters with bright material on dwarf planet Ceres shine in new images 
from NASA's Dawn mission.

In its lowest-altitude mapping orbit, at a distance of 240 miles (385 
kilometers) from Ceres, Dawn has provided scientists with spectacular 
views of the dwarf planet.

Haulani Crater, with a diameter of 21 miles (34 kilometers), shows evidence 
of landslides from its crater rim. Smooth material and a central ridge 
stand out on its floor. An enhanced false-color view allows scientists 
to gain insight into materials and how they relate to surface morphology. 
This image shows rays of bluish ejected material. The color blue in such 
views has been associated with young features on Ceres.

"Haulani perfectly displays the properties we would expect from a fresh 
impact into the surface of Ceres. The crater floor is largely free of 
impacts, and it contrasts sharply in color from older parts of the surface," 
said Martin Hoffmann, co-investigator on the Dawn framing camera team, 
based at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, 
Germany.

The crater's polygonal nature (meaning it resembles a shape made of straight 
lines) is noteworthy because most craters seen on other planetary bodies, 
including Earth, are nearly circular. The straight edges of some Cerean 
craters, including Haulani, result from pre-existing stress patterns and 
faults beneath the surface.  

A hidden treasure on Ceres is the 6-mile-wide (10-kilometer-wide) Oxo 
Crater, which is the second-brightest feature on Ceres (only Occator's 
central area is brighter). Oxo lies near the 0 degree meridian that defines 
the edge of many Ceres maps, making this small feature easy to overlook. 
Oxo is also unique because of the relatively large "slump" in its crater 
rim, where a mass of material has dropped below the surface. Dawn science 
team members are also examining the signatures of minerals on the crater 
floor, which appear different than elsewhere on Ceres.

"Little Oxo may be poised to make a big contribution to understanding 
the upper crust of Ceres," said Chris Russell, principal investigator 
of the mission, based at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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


News Media Contact

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

2016-106