[meteorite-list] Dawn Captures Sharper Images of Ceres

From: Graham Ensor <graham.ensor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 02:29:25 +0000
Message-ID: <CAJkn+kYYh9vRfP-r19r9PVgW-xg1LXE2LZSz6C=Zb7k=6S8p5Q_at_mail.gmail.com>

Yes Larry...been waiting a long time to find out what Ceres looks
like....really looking forward to the next weeks of more detail and
the analysis of data...and of course the decisions about those whiter
areas....I wonder what the actual brightness is...perhaps it is just
the camera correction and the surface is mostly very dark...anyone
know?

Graham

On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 10:36 PM, <Lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu> wrote:
> Graham:
>
> I am amazed by how cratered ("old") the surface looks. I am still
> personally very interested in how bright the whitish areas actually are.
> Icy?
>
> Larry
>
>
>> 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
>>> ______________________________________________
>>>
>>> Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com
>>> Meteorite-list mailing list
>>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>>> https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>> ______________________________________________
>>
>> Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com
>> Meteorite-list mailing list
>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>> https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>>
>
>
Received on Tue 17 Feb 2015 09:29:25 PM PST