Dawn spacecraft captures Ceres’ sunlit pole
Dawn spacecraft captures Ceres sunlit pole
Apr 17, 2015
by Deborah Byrd in » Science Wire, Space
This animation is made from the highest resolution images to date of the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn spacecraft which arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015 and has spent more than a month in orbit on the dwarf planets dark side captured the images to make this animation of Ceres sunlit north pole on April 10. At the time, the spacecraft was descending toward its first planned science orbit labeled RC3 in the diagram below which will be 8,400 miles (13,500 kilometers) above Ceres surface. Dawn was at a distance of 21,000 miles (33,000 kilometers) when its framing camera took these images. Itll reach the orbit RC3 on April 23.
Ceres is a tiny world formerly labeled an asteroid, orbiting in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter with an average diameter of about 590 miles (950 kilometers).
Subsequent images of Ceres will show surface features at increasingly better resolution.
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http://earthsky.org/space/dawn-spacecraft-captures-ceres-sunlit-pole?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=9ee7cc05c8-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-9ee7cc05c8-393525109
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