Dawn spacecraft acquires amazing images.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: NASA has announced that the Dawn spacecraft acquired the most detailed images of the mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres, which are known collectively as “Spot 5.”
Christopher Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission from the University of California, Los Angeles said in a statement from NASA: “Dawn scientists can now conclude that the intense brightness of these spots is due to the reflection of sunlight by highly reflective material on the surface, possibly ice.”
Dawn has now concluded its first mapping orbit, in which it completed one 15-day full circle around Ceres while making a host of new observations with its scientific instruments, reported NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.
Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two distinct solar system targets. It studied giant asteroid Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012, and arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015.
On May 9, the space probe powered on its ion engine to begin the month-long descent toward its second mapping orbit, which it will enter on June 6.
In this next phase, NASA disclosed Dawn will circle Ceres about every three days at an altitude of 2,700 miles, which three times closer than the previous orbit. During the second phase, referred to as Dawn’s survey orbit, the spacecraft will comprehensively map the surface to begin unraveling Ceres’ geologic history and assess whether the dwarf planet is active.