[meteorite-list] Dawn Captures Sharper Images of Ceres

From: Graham Ensor <graham.ensor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 19:49:36 +0000
Message-ID: <CAJkn+kacDXw6WXnr-uH3r=9Jf9-uz2seVPaXMky6Y1tGyimqDQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

Wonderful!...now seeing good detail...can't wait for a closer look and
the data analysis.

Graham

On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 4:44 PM, Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
>
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4485
>
> Dawn Captures Sharper Images of Ceres
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory
> February 17, 2015
>
> Craters and mysterious bright spots are beginning to pop out in the
> latest images of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. These images, taken
> Feb. 12 at a distance of 52,000 miles (83,000 kilometers) from the dwarf
> planet, pose intriguing questions for the science team to explore as the
> spacecraft nears its destination.
>
> The image is available at:
>
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19056
>
> "As we slowly approach the stage, our eyes transfixed on Ceres and her
> planetary dance, we find she has beguiled us but left us none the
> wiser," said Chris Russell, principal investigator of the Dawn mission,
> based at UCLA. "We expected to be surprised; we did not expect to be
> this puzzled."
>
> Dawn will be gently captured into orbit around Ceres on March 6. As the
> spacecraft delivers better images and other data, the science team will
> be investigating the nature and composition of the dwarf planet,
> including the nature of the craters and bright spots that are coming
> into focus. The latest images, which have a resolution of 4.9 miles (7.8
> kilometers) per pixel, represent the sharpest views of Ceres to date.
>
> The spacecraft explored the giant asteroid Vesta for 14 months during
> 2011 and 2012. Scientists gained numerous insights about the geological
> history of this body and saw its cratered surface in fine detail. By
> comparing Vesta and Ceres, they will develop a better understanding of
> the formation of the solar system.
>
> Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by the Jet Propulsion
> Laboratory 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., of Dulles,
> Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. JPL is managed for NASA by
> the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The framing cameras
> were provided by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research,
> Gottingen, Germany, with significant contributions by the German
> Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in
> coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network
> Engineering, Braunschweig. The visible and infrared mapping spectrometer
> was provided by the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National
> Institute for Astrophysics, built by Selex ES, and is managed and
> operated by the Italian Institute for Space Astrophysics and
> Planetology, Rome. The gamma ray and neutron detector was built by Los
> Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, and is operated by the Planetary
> Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona.
>
> For more information about Dawn, visit:
>
> http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov
>
> Media Contact
>
> Elizabeth Landau
> NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
> 818-354-6425
> Elizabeth.Landau at jpl.nasa.gov
>
> 2015-061
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Received on Tue 17 Feb 2015 02:49:36 PM PST