NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Takes Sharpest Image Yet of Ceres

Posted on January 30, 2015

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has taken the sharpest image to date of the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn is currently on its way to visit the dwarf planet. It will enter into orbit around Ceres on March 6th. NASA says detailed images captured in March should reveal details of the dwarf planet's surface composition.

The above image was taken by Dawn on January 25th. The 43 pixel wide image is 30% higher in resolution than images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 2003 and 2004. The new images reveal craters and a mysterious white spot on Ceres. An animation of the latest Ceres images from Dawn can be found here.

Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator of the Dawn mission at JPL, says in a statement, "We are already seeing areas and details on Ceres popping out that had not been seen before. For instance, there are several dark features in the southern hemisphere that might be craters within a region that is darker overall. Data from this mission will revolutionize our understanding of this unique body. Ceres is showing us tantalizing features that are whetting our appetite for the detailed exploration to come."

Ceres is the largest body between Mars and Jupiter in the main asteroid belt. It has a diameter of 590 miles (950 kilometers). The dwarf planet may have had a subsurface ocean and some scientists believe there could still be liquid water deep within Ceres. Ceres was classified as a dwarf planet in 2006. It was discovered in 1801 by Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi.

You can find out more about NASA's Dawn mission here.

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