{"id":10423,"date":"2015-04-21T01:11:43","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T05:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10423"},"modified":"2015-04-21T01:11:43","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T05:11:43","slug":"dawn-sees-ceres-bright-spots-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10423","title":{"rendered":"Dawn sees Ceres’ bright spots again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dawn spacecraft<\/a> shot past Ceres<\/a> a month or so and has not been able to see the sunlight side of the dwarf planet until recently as it moves back towards a close orbit around it. It can now see the bright spots that it say on the approach to Ceres:<\/p>\n

Ceres’ Bright Spots Come Back Into View<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"PIA19064_700[1]\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

April 20, 2015<\/strong>\u2014The two brightest spots on dwarf planet Ceres, which have fascinated scientists for months, are back in view in the newest images from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Dawn took these images on April 14 and 15 from a vantage point 14,000 miles (22,000 kilometers) above Ceres’ north pole.<\/p>\n

An animation and still image are available here: www.jpl.nasa.gov\/spaceimages\/details.php?id=PIA19064<\/a><\/p>\n

\"PIA19064[1]\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The images show the brightest spot and its companion clearly standing out against their darker surroundings, but their composition and sources are still unknown. Scientists also see other interesting features, including heavy cratering. As Dawn gets closer to Ceres, surface features will continue to emerge at increasingly better resolution.<\/p>\n

Dawn has now finished delivering the images that have helped mission planners maneuver the spacecraft to its first science orbit and prepare for subsequent observations. All of the approach operations have executed flawlessly and kept Dawn on course and on schedule. Beginning April 23, Dawn will spend about three weeks in a near-circular orbit around Ceres, taking observations from 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers) above the surface. On May 9, Dawn will begin to make its way to lower orbits to improve the view and provide higher-resolution observations.<\/p>\n

“The approach imaging campaign has completed successfully by giving us a preliminary, tantalizing view of the world Dawn is about to start exploring in detail. It has allowed us to start asking some new and intriguing questions,” said Marc Rayman, Dawn’s mission director and chief engineer, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.<\/p>\n

On March 6, Dawn became the first spacecraft to orbit a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two extraterrestrial targets. Scientists will be comparing Ceres to giant asteroid Vesta, which Dawn studied from 2011 to 2012, in order to gain insights about the formation of our solar system. Both Vesta and Ceres, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, were on their way to becoming planets before their development was interrupted.<\/p>\n

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, 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 dawn.jpl.nasa.gov\/mission\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dawn spacecraft shot past Ceres a month or so and has not been able to see the sunlight side of the dwarf planet until recently as it moves back towards a close orbit around it. It can now see the bright spots that it say on the approach to Ceres: Ceres’ Bright Spots Come … Continue reading Dawn sees Ceres’ bright spots again<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asteroids","category-space-science","category-space-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-2I7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10737,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10737","url_meta":{"origin":10423,"position":0},"title":"Dawn at Ceres: Latest photos of the ‘bright spots’ and other areas","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest\u00a0photos of Ceres from the Dawn spacecraft: The brightest spots on dwarf planet Ceres are seen in this image taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on June 6, 2015.\u00a0\u00a0Full image and caption Bright Spots Shine in Newest Dawn Ceres Images New images of dwarf planet Ceres, taken by NASA's Dawn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Asteroids & Comets"","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids & Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"pia19568_main-1041[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/pia19568_main-10411.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10817,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10817","url_meta":{"origin":10423,"position":1},"title":"Latest Dawn images of Ceres – Bright spots and a mountain stand out","author":"TopSpacer","date":"June 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0Dawn\u00a0spacecraft returns new photos of the dwarf planet Ceres: Ceres Spots Continue to Mystify in Latest Dawn Images The closer we get to Ceres, the more intriguing the distant dwarf planet becomes. New images of Ceres from NASA\u2019s Dawn spacecraft provide more clues about its mysterious bright spots, and also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Asteroids & Comets"","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids & Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"pia19579_main-1041","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/pia19579_main-1041-1024x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10631,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10631","url_meta":{"origin":10423,"position":2},"title":"Latest Dawn image of bright spots on Ceres surface","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0Dawn\u00a0probe is getting closer to the giant asteroid (or dwarf planet depending on your classification preference) and taking better images of those odd bright spots on the surface: [ Update: Lots more Ceres images with\u00a0Emily Lakdawalla's commentary:\u00a0Tons of fun with the latest Ceres image releases from Dawn -\u00a0The Planetary Society.]\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Asteroids & Comets"","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids & Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"pia19559-16-640x350[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/pia19559-16-640x3501.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10571,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10571","url_meta":{"origin":10423,"position":3},"title":"New Dawn images of Ceres and its bright spots","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dawn probe is now moving to where it can see most all of the dwarf planet Ceres. 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This animation shows a sequence of images taken by NASA's Dawn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Asteroids & Comets"","block_context":{"text":"Asteroids & Comets","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=75"},"img":{"alt_text":"PIA19547-home[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/PIA19547-home1-1024x560.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10004,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=10004","url_meta":{"origin":10423,"position":4},"title":"Dawn sees double bright spots on Ceres","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As the Dawn spacecraft closes in on the dwarf planet Ceres, it appears someone left the lights on: 'Bright Spot' on Ceres Has Dimmer Companion Dwarf planet Ceres continues to puzzle scientists as NASA's Dawn spacecraft gets closer to being captured into orbit around the object. 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