HONG KONG: NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has captured brand new high resolution picturesof the dwarf planet ‘Ceres.’ The pictures were taken from a distance of around 21,000 miles. NASA says that the spacecraft will remain there until May 9 and will send back interesting and high resolution images.
In the past three years, the spacecraft kept moving on towards Ceres with an aim to take a 3D image. With its help, it will be able to create a high-resolution map that shows the dwarf planet.
In March the spacecraft activated its thrusters in order to get a bit more closer to Ceres and the pictures were taken on April 10. On May 10 Dawn will take a step more closer to Ceres.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration said, “Ceres is the largest rock body between Mars and Jupiter”.
Ceres’ diameter is an average 590 miles (950 km) and it has been named after a Roman goddess of agriculture and harvest. Father Giuseppe Piazzi discovered it in 1801 and in 2006 astronomers decided to label it as a dwarf planet.
Researchers now look forward to capture the more detailed images of the planet as Dawn will enter into the orbit at 8,400 miles above Ceres’ surface on April 23. The latest image of Ceres was shown at the 2015 General Assembly of Geosciences Union in Vienna where researchers stated that the images indicated that Ceres was an active planet.
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