Asteroid belt Archives - The Silver Ink

Dawn spacecraft has sent new photos of the mysterious bright spots on Ceres

June 15, 2015 By Doyle Buehler 5 Comments

Scientists are mystified with the dwarf planet’s Ceres bright spots and NASA confirms some smaller bright spots surrounding the two large bright spots.

NASA has been speculating about the mysteries bright spots over the past several months.

The latest image was captured by the NASA’s Dwarf spacecraft on June 6, Saturday. The other smaller bright spots surrounding the two larger spots are clearly visible in the image.

The mission to explore the protoplanets in the solar system, namely the dwarf planet Ceres and Vesta which are the two largest bodies found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn is also the first probe to explore a dwarf planet.

The latest image sent by Dawn was taken from a distance of 2,700 miles above Ceres. This is also one of the first series of photos that was beamed back from the second mapping of the mission.

The largest bright spots measure 55 miles across, the mission control team and the program managers are confused as how these bizarre, highly reflective features formed on the surface of Ceres.

Chris Russell from the University of California, Los Angeles and the principle investigator said that the configuration of bright spots makes Ceres unique in the solar system where the team of scientists is trying to decipher the source of these lights. However, scientists believe that these could be ice or salt reflecting from the surface.

40 percent of the respondents from the survey answered that the bright spots are made from other materials. Most also answered ice from three out of ten votes making rocks the least popular choice that is selected by only six percent of the respondents.

Dawn spacecraft will begin to travel into lower orbits of Ceres, by the end of June. And in early August 2015, Dawn will be 900 miles over the surface.

Dawn captures best ever images of bright spots on Ceres

May 22, 2015 By Jeff Suchon 5 Comments

NASA’s dawn spacecraft has captured the best image of the strange bright spots on the dwarf planet.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has done it again by sending the latest best images.

The latest photo sent by dwarf is in a series of the best bright spot photos yet, as the spacecraft is moving closer to the dwarf planet Ceres.

Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Dwarf is getting into closer orbits of Ceres to take high resolution images.

The new image shows the bright spots which is seen in one of the Ceres many craters. Earlier images sent by Dawn have also shown the bright spots.

Scientist haven’t yet pinpointed what those bright spots are or the cause of the bright spots, but NASA want to know what you think they might be.

NASA has opened a voting pool, where it is asking members of public to decide what they think those bright spots are, and what is causing the reflectivity. They have given choices that include ice, volcano, salt deposit, geyser and other.

The other option is winning the poll at the moment.

Some scientists believe that those bright spots are made up of ice. Researchers know that the bright spots are caused by some highly reflective material on the surface of dwarf planet and it could be frozen water.

The image of the bright spots was taken on May 16, as Dawn flew about 4,500 miles or 7,200 kilometers from the surface of the planet.

Dawn is going to stay in the orbit until June 30, when it will go in for a closer look at the planet from lower orbits.

Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres. It started orbiting the planet in March 2015.

Before exploring Ceres it has also orbited Vesta, the second largest body in the belt after Ceres.

Dawn captures the mysterious bright spots on Ceres

April 25, 2015 By Jeff Suchon Leave a Comment

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has captured new images of the two bright spots on the surface of the planet.

Dawn has sent the new images after getting into the sunlit area of the dwarf planet; it has spent more than a month on the dark side of the planet and hence couldn’t capture any images.

The image of the bright spot was sent by Dawn on April 14 and 15; the image was captured from a distance of 14,000 miles above the surface of Ceres.

Dawn has earlier sent an image on April 10, which is showing the north pole of the planet, but the spots were not clearly visible in it, this image was taken from 21,000 miles away from the surface.

The recent image highlights the bright spot against the grey surface of the surrounding. Scientists don’t know the composition and source of the spots. The other features which can be seen in the image are large number of craters.

On April 23, Dawn will enter into its first science orbit, and will spend three weeks in the orbit. Dawn will be approximately 8,400 miles from the surface. Dawn is expected to capture 2,500 images from the first science orbit.

On May 9, Dawn will begin to move to lower orbits to take high resolution images of the planet.

To spin down to lower orbits, Dawn will use ion propulsion system.

Dawn was launched on Sept. 27, 2007 from Cape Canaveral.

Before orbiting Ceres, Dawn has orbited the second largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, Vesta. It arrived at Vesta on July 16, 2011, and the spacecraft has spent 14 months exploring Vesta, it has captured images and collected data of the asteroid.

It has departed to Ceres, its second target on Sept 5, 2012.

On March 6, 2015 Dawn was captured by the gravity of Ceres.

Dawn is the first spacecraft to orbit dwarf planet and also the first spacecraft to orbit two targets.

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