[meteorite-list] Dawn Snaps Its Best-Yet Image of Dwarf Planet Ceres

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2014 13:07:57 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201412052107.sB5L7voU012044_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4395

Dawn Snaps Its Best-Yet Image of Dwarf Planet Ceres
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
December 5, 2014

The Dawn spacecraft has delivered a glimpse of Ceres, the largest body
in the main asteroid belt, in a new image taken 740,000 miles (1.2
million kilometers) from the dwarf planet. This is Dawn's best image yet
of Ceres as the spacecraft makes its way toward this unexplored world.

"Now, finally, we have a spacecraft on the verge of unveiling this
mysterious, alien world. Soon it will reveal myriad secrets Ceres has
held since the dawn of the solar system," said Marc Rayman, of NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, chief engineer and
mission director of the Dawn mission.

Dawn will be captured into Ceres' orbit in March, marking the first
visit to a dwarf planet by a spacecraft. To date, the best images of
Ceres come from the Hubble Space Telescope. In early 2015, however, Dawn
will begin delivering images at much higher resolution.

Since launching in 2007, Dawn has already visited Vesta, a giant
protoplanet currently located 104 million miles (168 million kilometers)
away from Ceres. The distance between Vesta and Ceres is greater than
the distance between the Earth and the sun. During its 14 months in
orbit around Vesta, the spacecraft delivered unprecedented scientific
insights, including images of its cratered surface and important clues
about its geological history. Vesta and Ceres are the two most massive
bodies in the main asteroid belt.

The nine-pixel-wide image of Ceres released today serves as a final
calibration of the science camera that is necessary before Dawn gets to
Ceres. The dwarf planet appears approximately as bright as Venus
sometimes appears from Earth. Ceres has an average diameter of about 590
miles (950 kilometers).

Dawn begins its approach phase toward Ceres on December 26.

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington D.C. UCLA
is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing
cameras were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck
Institute for Solar System Research, Gottingen, Germany, with
significant contributions by German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of
Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of
Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The
Framing Camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and
NASA/JPL.

More information about Dawn is online at http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.


Media Contact

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

2014-414
Received on Fri 05 Dec 2014 04:07:57 PM PST