Dawn Mission releases New Colored Maps of Ceres

Included on the map are brand new, global Astronomical Union-approved names for some of the craters and other surface features.

On July 28, NASA has released lovely maps of Ceres, which is present in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Global Astronomical Union (IAU) in Paris decides the rules for naming such objects.

This map shows the highs and lows of topography on the surface of Ceres. The planet’s surface has dramatic variation, with as great as 9 mile (15 kilometer) variation between tall peaks and crater bottoms. The latest batch of 18 names is a very multicultural bunch, devoted largely to Earth-based deities. Occator is the name of the Roman agriculture deity of harrowing, a method of leveling soil. [Watch Ceres Turn in Video Map by Dawn]. “The features are pretty consistent with an ice-rich crust”.

NASA has just released a stunning new topographic map of Ceres, the other dwarf planet astronomers are getting to study up close and personal this summer.

The newly labeled features include Occator, the mysterious crater containing Ceres’ brightest spots, which has a diameter of about 60 miles (90 kilometers) and a depth of about 2 miles (4 kilometers).

A crater with bright material, unofficially named Spot 1, is now identified as Haulani. It’s named after a Hawaiian plant goddess, and seems to be colder than the surrounding area.

The crater is about 100 miles (160 km) wide and 3 miles (6 km) deep. It boasts a 2-mile-high (3 km) pointy peak rising out of the center, and is named for the Indian and Iranian god of plants and fields. Then we’ve got Dantu, after the Ghanaian god of planting corn, and Ezinu, the Sumerian goddess of grain.

Kerwan and Yalode: Each over twice as big as Dantu or Ezinu, these craters are named for the Hopi spirit of sprouting maize and an African Dahomey goddess worshipped for the harvest. Positioned a mere 900 miles over the dwarf planet’s surface, Dawn will continue to take images and collect spectral data, hopefully unravelling the origin of those winking bright spots, and teaching us more about this odd little world’s past.

This visible and infrared image of dwarf planet Ceres shows Haulani, a bright region named after the Hawaiian plant goddess.

Dawn is now spiraling toward Ceres, and will be entering its third orbit, three times closer than its previous one, in mid-August. It conducted extensive observations of Vesta in 2011-2012. Dawn arrived in orbit at Ceres on March 6, 2015 and there it will remain during its primary science phase and beyond; Ceres is now Dawn’s permanent home.