Fwd: Pyramid-shaped mountain found on dwarf planet Ceres

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 24, 2015 at 10:44:03 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Pyramid-shaped mountain found on dwarf planet Ceres

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/go-for-launch/os-ceres-pyramid-shaped-mountain-20150623-post.html

 

Pyramid-shaped mountain found on dwarf planet Ceres

Orlando Sentinel

 

Scientists are puzzled by the discovery of white lights and a 3-mile-high pyramid formation on the dwarf planet Ceres.

 

By Richard Tribou Orlando Sentinel contact the reporter

Scientists are puzzled by the discovery of white lights and a 3-mile-high pyramid formation on the dwarf planet Ceres.

 

What does it take to distract people from NASA's approaching visit to Pluto? How about a three-mile-high, pyramid-shaped mountain on dwarf planet Ceres.

Since March, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has been taking closer and closer looks at Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The first thing Dawn took photos of that got everyone's attention was a 6-mile wide bright spot, which NASA researchers think is possibly ice and salt, but are not certain.

Caption Dwarf planet Ceres

NASA/JPL

Images of dwarf planet Ceres taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft in 2015.

Caption Dwarf planet Ceres

NASA/JPL

Images of dwarf planet Ceres taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft in 2015.

Dawn has been circling and probing the dwarf planet at different altitudes. The first mapping took place at 8,400 miles high. The second and latest is at 2,700 miles, with each pass taking about three days.  This current trip is what brought back an image of the mountain jutting out from a smooth area of planet's surface.

The planet is rife with craters of different sizes and its surface shows evidence of past activity such as flows, landslides and what NASA calls collapsed structures.

"The surface of Ceres has revealed many interesting and unique features. For example, icy moons in the outer solar system have craters with central pits, but on Ceres central pits in large craters are much more common," said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator for the Dawn mission, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "These and other features will allow us to understand the inner structure of Ceres that we cannot sense directly."

As far as the bright spots, what was first thought to be one big bright spot was revealed to be several.

"The bright spots in this configuration make Ceres unique from anything we've seen before in the solar system," said Chris Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission. "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. closer views from the new orbit and multiple view angles, we soon will be better able to determine the nature of this enigmatic phenomenon.

Dawn will continue circling and mapping Ceres until June 30 and will the reposition to an altitude of 900 miles by early August and do it all over again.

Dawn previously visited the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, Vesta, for 14 months in 2011 and 2012. Vesta is the brightest asteroid seen from Earth. Dawn's arrival to Ceres on March 6, 2015 marked the first time a NASA probe had visited a dwarf planet (New Horizons will pass by Pluto around July 14), and also the first time a NASA mission had orbited two distinct objects in our solar system.

Ceres was discovered in 1801. It's roughly 598 miles in diameter. The Dawn mission launched in 2007 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a Delta II rocket.

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