MEXICO: NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has shown the brightest spots on the dwarf planet Ceres that are gleaming with mystery.
The closest view yet of Occator crater, with a resolution of 450 feet per pixel, on its surface gives scientists a deeper perspective on these very unusual features.
The new up close view reveals better-defined shapes of the brightest, central spot and features on the crater floor.
“Dawn has transformed what were so recently a few bright dots into a complex and beautiful, gleaming landscape,” said Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer and mission director from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two distinct solar system targets.
“Soon, the scientific analysis will reveal the geological and chemical nature of this mysterious and mesmerising extraterrestrial scenery,” he said in a statement.
Because these spots are so much brighter than the rest of Ceres’ surface, the Dawn team combined two different images into a single composite view- one properly exposed for the bright spots, and one for the surrounding surface.
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